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THREE THOUSAND MILES 



THROUGH THE 



BOCKY MOUNTAINS, 



BY 



A. K. McCLURE. 




'/ 

PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPTNCOTT & CO. 

1 8 9. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



fS*^ 






PREFACE. 



In presenting these letters to the public in book form, I 
do not claim for them any measure of literary merit. They 
were written hastily, during* a journey of three thousand 
miles through the Rocky Mountains, and often in the 
midst of annoyances not favorable to epistolary perfection. 
The letters embrace two distinct series: one published in 
the New York '' Tribune," and the other published in the 
" Franklin Repository," which will account for the treat- 
ment of the same topics in different letters, although always 
substantially varied. I need hardly say that they were not 
written with the design to collect them in book form ; and 
now, when the wide-spread interest felt in the rapidly- 
growing Great West seems to demand reliable information 
of the people, resources, progress, and destiny of the Rocky 
Mountain Territories, I find it impossible to revise the let- 
ters so as to conform them to the exactions of the critical 
without depriving them of much of their freshness, and, 
probably, some of their usefulness. Fully conscious of their 
many imperfections, I have consented to their publication 
only because I hope thereby to afford, in some humble de- 
gree, the long-delayed justice to the pioneers of the West, 
and, at the same time, give some little additional strength to 
the growing disposition to make the boundless mineral and 
agricultural wealth of the Territories available to benefit our 
common country. He who aids, in any measure, in advan- 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

cing our people and our government to a just appreciation 
of the limitless riches which the Great West has so long 
offered to the nation, will not have lived without benefit to 
his people ; and it is to contribute my mite to that great 
end that these pages are presented to the public. I am 
fully sensible that, in another decade, scores of new records 
of the West will be written by abler pens than mine ; and 
each new advocate will have brighter fields to explore and 
more dazzling pictures to present, as the nation is made to 
grasp its matchless prize of wealth toward the setting sun. 
Before that brief time shall elapse, these crude pages will be 
forgotten, — unless by the few who preserve the erratic foot- 
prints of Western progress. Three through-lines of railroad 
will span the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, dot- 
ting their lines with new cities, new settlements, new 
churches, new schools, new communities, and new and 
mighty States ; and the freshly-inspired commerce of the 
ancient empire will be turned from its westward course 
toward the Great Republic in the East, and mingle with 
the newly-created millions of products of our new-born 
Commonwealths, as united they sweep across our conti- 
nent to our commercial centres, and thence to the Old 
World. To hasten the events that will cause these letters 
to be forgotten, is now their mission ; and their faults may 
be freely condemned, if they shall render the humblest aid 
to enlarge the stature of our Western empire. 

A. K. M. 
Philadelphia, April, 1869. 



CONTEITTS. 



LETTER I. 



From Chambersburg to Pittsburg. — Parting with Old Friends. — The 
Juniata Valley. — Crossing the Alleghanies. — The Progress of a 
Quarter of a Century. — A Day in Pittsburg. ... 17 

LETTER IL 

Pittsburg to Chicago. — Farewell to the Pennsylvania Mountains. — 
The Progress of the West.— Western Boys. — A Delightful Sleeping- 
Car. — The Conventionalities of Society on Sleeping-Cars. — An 
Early Breakfast. — A Locomotive-Race. — Excitement of the Pas- 
sengers. — Westward Travel stopped by the Floods. . . 22 

LETTER IIL 

Chicago to Omaha. — Chicago a Fast City. — Getting News in the 
West. — The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. — Its Hasty and 
Imperfect Construction. — The Missouri Flood. — Western Iowa. — 
"Square Meals." — Western Luxuries. — A Wreck. — Delay and 
Scarcity of Provisions. — Lunch-baskets. — A Foraging Party. — 
Indifferent Success. — "All Right again." — Another Stop at Honey- 
brook. — Another Hunt for Rations. — Dealing with a Western Dame 
for Milk and Bread. — Swindled by Biddy. — Council Blufis. — An 
Unpleasant Night in the Cars. — Trouble in crossing the Missouri 
River. — The People of Omaha, . . . . .27 

LETTER IV. 

Council Bluffs. — The Enterprise and Thrift of Omaha. — A Specimen 
Western City. — How Houses are built in a Day. — The Indian 
War. — General Augur's projected Campaign in the Hostile Coun- 
try. — Position and Numbers of many of the Indian Tribes un- 
known. — Our Military Force inadequate for War. — Embarrass- 
ments of the Indian Problem. — The Inevitable Fate of the Red 
Man. — Sympathy of the Military with the Indians. — The Opinions 
of the Western People. . . . . . .37 

LETTER V. 

Starting from Omaha for the Plains. — The Union Pacific Railroad. — 
The Flood in the Platte Valley.— The Platte River.— Scarcity of 
Shrubbery and Trees. — The Adobe Shanties. — Antelopes and Buffa- 

(5J 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

loes. — The Indian War again. — It grows more serious. — General 
Hancock's Expedition South. — His Enemy raids North. — The Cost 
of killing Indians. — The Military embarrassed by the Civil Au- 
thorities. — Transfer of the Indians to the War Department a Neces- 
sity. — Off again Westward. . • . . • .45 

LETTER VI. 

From North Platte to Denver. — The Barrenness of the Platte Valley. 
— The "Lone Tree" and "Plum Creek" not visible. — Sources 
of the Platte River. — First Experiment in Overland Staging. — The 
First Indian Alarm. — Troops protecting a Whisky-Mill. — Alarm of 
the Station-Men. — A Cowardly Driver induced to change his 
Strategy. — A Canadian Frenchman uses a Revolver as a Persuader. 
— The First "Square Meal" on the Plains. — Fort Sedgwick. — 
Plenty of Troops, but ineffective. — Indians drive in the Cavalry. — 
The Stage goes on and passes in Safety. — Quicksand and Sand- 
Gnats.— A Burnt Station.— Supper with "Old Wicked."— The Din- 
ner at Living Spring. — Arrival at Denver. . . .53 

LETTER VIL 

Efforts to understand the Indian Question. — The Western Demand 
for Chivington or Conner. — Western Contempt for the Regular 
Army. — Why Regulars do not fight Indians successfully. — Advan- 
tages of the Indians in a Summer Campaign. — The Monuments of 
Indian Warfare.— The Platte Valley Raid of 1865.— Horrible Cruel- 
ties of the Savages.— Hollen Godfrey, or "Old Wicked."— His De- 
fense of his Ranch. — A Supper with him, and his Story of his 
Fight. — His Solution of the Indian Problem. — He regards Indians 
as Peaceable when they are Dead. — How Indians conduct Cam- 
paigns. — Their Signals and Spies. — There must be Peace. — It will 
be the Peace of Death to the Indian. — The Harney and Chivington 
Wars. 65 

LETTER VIIL 

A Prolific Subject for the Letter-writer. — An Afternoon at the Denver 
Races. — An Interesting Race. — The Value of a Sporting Watch 
discovered. — Denver and its People. — Its Experience with Despera- 
does. — The Fate of the Steels. — The Attack upon Mr. Byers. — Mr. 
Hepworth Dixon's Blunders. — His Hero Bob Wilson. — The Order, 
Morality, and Advantages of Denver. — Character of Western Set- 
tlers. — What Sacrifices they make, and how poorly requited. — The 
Lark. — The Prairie-dog and Owl. — The Rattlesnake. — The Indian 
Troubles again. — The Overland Route closed by Savages East and 
West. — Indian Atrocities. — Western Volunteers the Remedy. . 77 

LETTER IX, 

Colorado and her Progress. — The Substantial Progress of Denver. — 
Its Depression and Prospects. — The Evils of Selfish Politicians. — 
Colorado a Gigantic Suicide in the Management of her Rich Mines. 
The Rage of Speculation, and consequent Bankruptcy. — The City 
of Abandoned Quartz-Mills. — Twenty Millions of Capital wasted in 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE 

Feverish Speculation. — Legitimate Development retarded. — The 
Prospect of Restoration to Prosperous Business. — The Trip through 
the Mountains. — Their Matchless Grandeur. — The Storm-King in 
Conflict with the Snow-capped Peaks. . . . .88 

LETTER X. 

Indian-bound in Denver. — The Savages controlling the Overland 
Route East and West. — General Augur's Use of Troops. — Interest- 
ing Telegraphic Correspondence with him.— His "Upper Country" 
Campaign. — No Earnest Efi"ort to protect the Great Overland 
Routes. — A Pleasant Time with the Coloradans. — New Treatment 
of Strangers. — Why Dixon was fooled. — The Variety of Character 
in the West. — The Stage-Driver. — His Skill, Intelligence, and 
Courtesy. — Staging about Denver. — The "Square Meals" of the 
West. — High Prices of Labor. — House-Servants and Wives wanted. 
— Judge Eyster. — Colonel Wash. Lee. . . . .98 

LETTER XL 

Still Indian-bound in Colorado. — End of Hancock's Expedition. — 
Another Peace-talk to be had with the Savages. — The Indians raid 
the Overland Routes, while the Troops are ordered to hunt Indians 
where they are not to be found. — General Sherman's Policy. — Great 
Injustice to the West. — The Tide of Emigration arrested. — The 
Necessity of protecting One Route. — Contractors said to be en- 
couraging War. — The Sad Failure of Mining-Companies in Colo- 
rado. — Their Hopeless Future. — Legitimate Enterprise the only 
Way to Success in the Mines. — The Variations of Colorado Cli- 
mate.— The Crops. . . . . . . .107 

LETTER XIL 

A Journey to Colorado City. — Crossing the Divide. — Thunder- and 
Snow-Storms. — The Pines. — Bierstadt and the Colorado Rocks. — 
Storm-staid at " The Dirty Woman's Ranch." — A Western Cabin. — 
A Pleasant and Hospitable Hostess. — A Bright Fire and Excellent 
Supper. — The Guests chat away the Evening. — The " Garden of 
the Gods." — Grandeur of the Monuments. — Natural Pillars from 
Three to Five Hundred Feet High. — They appear like Ruins of 
Colossal Statuary. — The Mineral Springs. — Camp Creek Canon. — 
A Severe Snow-Storm. — Vain Attempt to procure Shelter from a 
Fugitive Mormoness. — Petrifactions on the Platte. . . 114 

LETTER XIIL 

Storm-bound in Denver. — An Old-fashioned Eastern Settled Rain. — 
The " Oldest Inhabitant'' cannot explain it. — Rapid Rise of the 
Mountain-Streams. — The Stage stopped by the Flood. — Peril of Pas- 
sengers in crossing a Little Stream. — Prospects of Indian Raids. — 
No "Friendlies" visible but the Utes. — The First Settlers of Colorado. 
— Legislation to defeat Foreign Creditors. — Svimmary Execution of 
Part of Quantrell's Band. — Agricultural Productions of Colorado. 122 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER XIV. 



Off from Denver. — The Party. — Our Arms. — Indians in Front and 
Rear. — Swollen Streams. — Crossing Boulder. — Virginia Dale. — The 
Savages uncomfortably Close. — Prospect of a Brush. — Passing the 
Black Hills. — Tactics of the Indians. — When they attack. — Arrival 
at Cooi)er's Creek. — The Stage-Horses stolen by the Indians. — The 
Policy of the Military. — An Escort of Three Troopers. — Fort Hal- 
leck.— Elk Mountain. — Running the Gauntlet of an Indian Camp. 
— The Driver and his Strategy. — A Hasty Drive. — North Platte. — 
The Indians on the War-Path ahead. — A Council of War. — A For- 
ward Movement decided on. — A Bright but Deceptive Morning. — 
The First Station abandoned, and the Second Burning. — A Sober 
Dinner-Party at Pine Grove. — A Pitiless Snow-Storm. — The Sta- 
tion burning on the Summit of the Rocky Range. — Our Situation 
most critical. — ''Big Dick." — Fresh Tracks, and a Line of Battle 
necessary. — Dick's Disposal of the Lady. — The "Cusses" over- 
taken. — A Mutual Retreat. — Firing forbidden by Dick. — Arrival at 
Sulphur Spring. — The Horses captured there the same Day. — The 
Battle the Day before. — A Melancholy Stage-Drive. — Captain Wil- 
son's Apology to General Sherman. — The Accommodations. — The 
Alarm. — Westward again. . . . . . . 127 

LETTER XV. 

Departure from Sulphur Spring. — The Savages witness our Depart- 
ure. — Military Strategy of the Old Station-Man. — The Pets of the 
Stations. — Cats, Dogs, and Chickens. — Vengeance of the Indians 
in killing the Station Pets. — Indians attack a Train. — Bitter Creek 
reached. — The Alkali Water and Dust. — Green River. — Fresh Water 
again. — A Dispute for the Team. — The Driver convinced in our 
Favor. — A Belligerent Official. — The Church Buttes. — A Team of 
Bronchos. — FortBridger. — Hospitality of Judge Carter. — The Mor- 
mon War. — Indians. — Contempt of the Males for Women. — The 
Quaking Asp Summit. — A Night at Bear River. — Echo Canon. — 
Hank Conner and his Gay Team. — Among the Moi-mons at Weber. 
— Crossing the Wasatch Range. — Five Feet of Snow. — A Harmless 
Upset. — Arrival at Salt Lake. ..... 143 

LETTER XVL 

Hospitality of the Mormons. — Despotism of the Mormon Leaders. — 
The Theory of Mormon Power. — Character of the Mormon Emi- 
grants. — Their Greatly Improved Temporal Condition. — The Serfs 
of the Old World become Thrifty Farmers in Utah. — Brigham 
Young. — His Abilities as an Adminstrator generally underrated. — 
His Appearance, Culture, and Manners. — His Wives. — The Last 
and Favorite an Apple of Discord in the Prophet's Home. — Poly- 
gamy as a Source of Power. — Plural Wives. — The Terrors of Poly- 
gamy to Mormon Women. — Preaching in the Tabernacle. — Brigham 
Young's Sermon. — His Blasphemy and Profanity. — His Temporal 
Power, — His Financial Management. — Distracting Issues in the 
Church. — The Causes combining to the Overthrow of Mormonism. 154 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER XVII. 

The Pleasant City of the Saints.— Their Industry and Thrift.— Their 
Enjoyments. — The Great Basin. — Salt Lake. — Its Tributaries. — 
Why Utah was chosen by the Mormons. — Character of the Valley 
when they found it. — Success of Mormon Industry. — The Mormon 
Religion. — Brigham Young Spiritual and Temporal Head of the 
Church. — His Wives. — The Religious Feature of Polygamy. — Mor- 
mon Wives again. — Mormon Service in the Tabernacle. — The Blot 
of Polygamy. ....... 165 

LETTER XVIIL 

Continued Interruption of Travel. — The Indian Campaigns. — The In- 
justice done the Western People. — Desire of the West for Peace. — 
The Inefficiency of the Military. — Wells, Fargo &, Co. — Their Horses 
exposed to Indians for Want of Feed. — No Valuable Horses on the 
Mountain Divisions. — Passengers exposed to Danger for Want of 
Stock. — The Stables undefended. — No Horses stolen from Defended 
Stables. — Mr. Holliday. — He deranges the Line, and then falls 
back. — Kindness of the Employes of the Company. . . 175 

LETTER XIX. 

A Delightful Journey through Mormondom. — How Brigham " dic- 
tates" to the Faithful. — The Bishops and their Revenues. — How 
they assist the Poor. — The Mormon Industrial System a Success. — 
Ogden City. — Bishop West and his Eight Wives. — How a Mormon 
Bishop luxuriates. — The Prairie-Flowers. — Bear River. — Countless 
Mosquitoes and Gnats. — Passengers and Driver veiled. — Idaho. — 
Appropriate Names of Stations. — Climbing the Rocky Range again. 184 

LETTER XX. 

A Night-Ride on the Summit of the Rocky Range. — The Mosquitoes 
again. — Pleasant Valley Station a Fraud. — Parting of the Waters 
on the Summit to the Eastern and Western Seas. — The Source of 
the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. — The Snake River. — Its Tortu- 
ous Course through the Mountains. — The Stinking-Water River. — 
Virginia City.— Its First Settlers.— Alder Gulch.— Its Wonderful 
Yield of Gold.— Belt of Rich Mines.— The Precious Metals of Mon- 
tana. — Agricultural Resources of the Territory. — Irregularity of the 
Mails. — Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Special Mails. — A Premium paid for 
Neglect to convey the Mails. — How to test the Safety of the Over- 
land Route. . . . . . . . .190 

LETTER XXL 

Reluctant Parting with the Mormons. — The Beauty of Mormon 
Homes. — They labor for Beauty and Plenty. — The Ogden Bishop 
again. — The Sterile Waste across Idaho. — The Mosquitoes and 
Gnats. — The Station-Men and their Pets. — A New and Novel Apart- 
ment. — Mice in the Place of Cats and Dogs. — A '' Square Meal" at 
Pleasant Valley. — A Good Supper and Grateful Rest at Black Tail 
Deer.— The Last Fifty Miles.— Sleeping in the Coach.— The Wel- 
come Moon. — The God of Day gilding the Rocky Domes. . . 199 

Q 



10 CONTENTS. 



LETTER XXII. 

Union City. — Its Architecture and Popvilation. — Its Sobriety. — The 
Single Monument of its Mortality. — The Bluebird and Robin. — The 
Natal Day of the Republic. — Howit was not celebrated. — The West- 
ern People. — Their Cordial Hospitality and Kindness. — How Peo- 
ple are "eorraled." — Western Terms and their Significance. — How 
they live. — The Bountiful Boards of the Miners. — How Sunday is 
observed. — Sunday Auctions. — Gambling-Hells licensed by Law. — 
The Charms of Western Life. . . . . .207 

LETTER XXIIL 

Mining in Montana. — The Failures of Quartz-Mills in the Midst of 
Rich Mines. — Hundreds of Mills should be paying in the Territory. 
— The Cost of Mining and Working Ores. — Prices in Montana. — The 
Money paid for Freights. — Fluctuations in Bvisiness. — Why Mining 
Companies fail. — The Best Mines owned in Small Fractions. — Eco- 
nomical Development impossible. — The '• Freeze-out" Game. — How 
Companies should test Mines before purchasing.— Mills not needed 
until Mines are fully developed. — Character of Ores to determine 
Character of Machinery. — Montana as a Field for Successful In- 
vestments. ........ 214 

LETTER XXIV. 

The Montana Vigilanters. — The Reign of Crime in the Mining Re- 
gions. — Montana the Refuge of the Lawless. — The Concentration of 
Desperadoes. — How Virginia City was named. — Organization of 
Plummer's Band. — Plummer Sheriff of the Territory. — All the 
Channels of the Law controlled. — Completeness of the Organization. 
— Its Signs and Ofiicers. — Victims unconsciously notifying the . 
Robbers of their Prey. — The Tide of Retribution. — Its Merciless 
Sweep. — Colonel John X. Beidler. — The Hero of Montana Justice. 
— His History and Exploits. — How the Judgment of the Vigilanters 
is executed. — The First Execution. — The Last of Plummer's Band. 
— The Great Revolution wrought by the Vigilanters. — One of their 
own Members executed. — The Justice of their Judgments. — The 
Restoration of Order and Safety. ..... 226 

LETTER XXV. 

A Political Mandamus. — Opening of a Mountain Political Campaign. 
— Western People. — Their Generosity and Prodigality. — Extrava- 
gance of Prosperous Times. — The Restless Prospecter. — Sunday in 
Virginia City. — Street-Auctions. — Cheap John on Eastern Notions. 
— Shepherds get astray. — Sunday in Union City. — The Children of 
the Village. — Departure of Little Eva. — Her Affecting Farewell. — 
Little Alice. — Her Theological Disputation. — Corraled in the 
Mountains by Indians and Low Water. .... 239 

LETTER XXVL 

The City of Hoggum. — How it got its Name. — The Hoggum Hust- 
ings. — An Unsympathizing Audience and an Uninspired Speaker. 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAGE 

— A Hospitable Pennsylvania Farmer. — A Hot Ride across the 
Prairies and Cliffs. — Rest and Refreshments on the Madison. — The 
Madison Valley. — The Devastation of the Grasshoppers. — Crossing 
the Hot Springs Divide. — A Continued Belt of Gold-Leads. — Pro- 
posed Militarj' and Prospecting Campaign into the Yellowstone. — 
The M. M., or Montana Militia. — How they deal with the Indians. 
— Hot Springs District. — The Quartz-Mills and Mines. — Obstacles 
to Successful Mining. — A Political Meeting. — Interesting Discus- 
sion. — Rocky Mountain Audiences and Orators. — Pleasant Enter- 
tainment at Lower Hot Springs. — A Mountain-Dairy. — Prices of 
Milk and Butter. — Dinner in the Gallatin Valley. — A Missouri 
Spinster the Hostess. — Welcomed to Bozeman. — Another Political 
Meeting. — Entertained by the Lawyer of the City. — One Room for 
Chamber, Dining-Room, and Office. — Down Gallatin Valley. — Its 
Beauty and Fruitfulness. — Political Meeting at Gallatin City. — 
But One Republican present. — The Head of the Missouri. — Another 
Hot Drive to Hoggum. . . . . . .246 

LETTER XXVIL 

Crossing the Plains and Divides to the Madison. — Madison Valley. — 
Its Fertility. — Indifferent Farming. — Mormon Industry and Sys- 
tem wanted. — Ravages of the Grasshopjiers. — Swarms of Millions 
migrating from one Valley to another. — No Crops next Year. — The 
Crickets and their Ravages. — Hot Springs Mines and Mills again. 
— The Gallatin Valley. — Its Beautiful Streams, Bountiful Farms, 
and Splendid Herds. — Farming a Permanent Bixsiness in the Galla- 
tin. — Fine Crops and Implements. — Yield and Price of Wheat. — 
Bozeman City. — Colonel Bozeman. — His Murder by the Savages. 
— The Montana Militia. — Gallatin City. — Its Hasty Rise and De- 
cline. — Its Founders ignorant of Geography. — The City Cabins now 
grace the Prosperous Ranches. ..... 261 

LETTER XXVIIL 

The Morning Air of the Mountains. — A Wonderful Tonic. — Mount- 
ain-Pasturage. — How Cattle are wintered. — Bunch Grass and Ten- 
der Beef. — The Gallatin Valley again. — Its Fertility and many 
Advantages. — The Northern Pacific Railroad. — The Navigation of 
the Upper Missouri. — The rich Region east of Gallatin. — The Sav- 
age resisting Civilization. — Settlements extending East and West 
through Montana. — The Inevitable Solution of the Indian Problem. 
— Prickly Pear Valley. — Dinner and Rest. — Don Pedro and his 
Mistress. — Welcome to Helena. — Dr. Cass in Command. — His Ideas 
of Water as a Steady Beverage. — A Bottle of Wine his Sovereign 
Remedy. — Another Political Meeting. — Speech refuted in the News- 
papers. — A Day at the Hot Springs. — Mrs. General Meagher. — Ex- 
cellent Dinner and Baths. — Virtue and Vice. . . . 272 

LETTER XXIX. 

The Head of the Missouri River. — A Beautiful Prospect. — The Cliff 
on which Lewis and Clarke first viewed and named the Jefferson, 
Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. — Navigation of the Upper Missouri. 



12 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

— From Gallatin to Hoggum. — The Missouri and Prickly Pear Val- 
leys. — The Fertile Soil about Helena. — Helena City. — Its Rapid 
Growth. — Character of its People. — Its Rich Bars and Gulches. — 
Water-Ditches. — The Hangman's Tree. — James W. Whitlach. — The 
Whitlach Union Mine. — The Reward of Earnest Development. . 281 

LETTER XXX. 

The Trade and Prosperity of Helena. — The Immense Consumption of 
a Small Population. — Climbing the Rocky Range again. — The Mul- 
len Wagon-Road an Old Indian Trail. — Magnificent Timber on the 
Northern Slopes of the Range. — Fine Blooded Cattle grazing on the 
Mountains. — Parting of the Waters. — 'Meadow Brook. — Brook- 
Trout. — A " Batch" Dinner. — Carpenter's Bar. — Blackfoot City. — 
Political Speaking. — Competition of the Gambling-Saloons and 
Bars. — Good Order preserved. — Democratic Meeting on Sunday. — 
The Salute to General Smith.— Judge Williston. . . .288 

LETTER XXXL 

The Forests of the Rocky Range on Mullen's Pass. — The Mountains 
on Fire. — Deer Lodge Valley. — Its Mining-Districts. — Promising 
Gold and Silver Leads. — Exorbitant Prices named in Bonds to 
Middle-Men. — Legitimate Mining. — Failure almost invariably due 
to Mismanagement. — Deer Lodge City. — Its Beautiful Streams and 
Vast Herds. — Its Great Mineral Spring. — Agricultural Settlements 
of Montana.— The Missoula Valley.— Growth of Fruit. . . 294 

LETTER XXXIL 

Sunday in Blackfoot. — A Pet Dog stolen. — A Bucking Kiyuse. — West- 
ern Riders. — How they saddle and bridle Western Ponies. — Con- 
quering the Kiyuse. — Judge Williston. — Deer Lodge City. — Game 
in the Valley. — Crossing the Rocky Range again at Big Hole Pass. 
— The Gradual Ascent from the West. — Another Batch Dinner — 
The Batch's Pets. — Divide Creek. — Its Waters coursing to both 
Oceans. — Fourth Crossing of the Rocky Range. — Big Hole Valley. 
— Hospitality of Moose Creek. — A Delightful Supper. — A Bed of 
Doubtful Color. — A Struggle with Bedbugs. — A Loquacious Land- 
lady. — Her Untidiness. — Her Conflicts with the Bugs. — A Dubious 
Breakfast. — Two Thousand Miles of Pleasant Staging in the Mount- 
ains. . . . . . . . . .301 

LETTER XXXIIL 

Deer Lodge River and its Tributaries. — Highland and Butte City 
Mining-Districts. — Marvelous Yield of Ores. — Big Hole Valley. — 
Beaver-Head River and Valley. — Ravages of the Grasshoppers. — 
Stinking-Water Valley and its Fine Improvements. — Lorrain's 
Ranch. — His History. — A Settler for a Quarter of a Century. — His 
Brides. — His Last Best Gift, and how he got her. — His Vast Posses- 
sions. — Romantic Fishing-Parties.— -Pleasant Rides over the Prai- 
rie.— Alder Gulch and its Wealth. . . . .307 



CONTENTS. 13 



LETTER XXXIV. 

The Mineral Wealth of Montana. — Recent Discoveries of Mines of 
Great Promise. — The Economical Delivery of Ores. — Causes of Fail- 
ure of Mills. — Improved Machinery coming into the Territory. — 
Prospects of Legitimate Mining in Montana. — The "Freeze-out 
Game." — Judicious Development of Mines much needed. — How 
Gold-Mines are discovered. — The Prospecter. — His Love of Adven- 
ture. — His Dream of Gold. — His Recklessness of Life. — How much 
he contributes to the Nation, and how poorly rewarded himself. — 
Rushing from Diggings to some New Eldorado. — The Salmon River 
Stampede. — The Prospector's Dream of Home. . . . 314 

LETTER XXXV. 

The Melancholy Days. — The Tide of Progress. — The Living Reign on 
the Oregon. — "Old Baldy." — His Advent and History. — His Relics 
from his Companionship in the Deep. — His Kind Admonition of the 
Coming of the Storm-King. — He changes not with the Advance of 
Civilization. — " Lo" and his Bride. — The Fate of the Red Man. — 
How he became peaceable. — Another Visitor. — The Mountain-Rat. 
— His original Social Qualities. — The Reign of the Storm-King. . 326 

LETTER XXXVL 

A Western Court. — The Court-Room. — Limited Powers of the Judge. 
— Freedom of the Lawyers. — Chief-Justice Hosmer. — A Specimen 
Case. — The same Point decided Five Times, after as many Legal 
Wrangles. — Disregard of Judicial Decrees. — Sleeping with a Pro- 
fessor. — Interesting Researches into the Past. — Imaginary Wander- 
ings over Montana Millions of years ago. — Con. Orem and his 
Prize-Fight. — Invited to be a Referee. — A Reminiscence of the 
Rebellion. — General Fitz-John Porter. — Mrs. Swisshelm and Gen- 
eral Grant. — He will be next President, if living. — Future Visits to 
Montana. . . . . . . . .332 

LETTER XXXVIL 

How Gold and Silver are produced. — Gulch- or Placer-Diggings. — 
How the Gulches are worked. — Devices to save the Gold in Avashing 
the Earth. — How Miners make Laws. — The Sanctity of their Mining- 
Laws. — Quartz-Mining. — How Miners procure the Ores. — Shafts, 
Tunnels, and Drifts. — Hoisting by Windlass, Whim, and Steam. — 
Foul Air and Water. — Selecting Quartz. — Difference in Color and 
Quality. — Crushing the Ores. — Amalgamating the Gold with Quick- 
silver. — Working Sulphurets. — Arastras and Barrels. — Stamp-Mills 
and Chilian Mills. — Silver-Ores. — Smelting Galena Silver-Ores. — 
The Clean-Up.— Amalgam.— The Brick of Gold. . . .342 

LETTER XXXVIIL 

The Indian Question. — Failure of the Indian Campaign. — The Military 
Expeditionsfruitless. — Fearful Extent of Savagery on the Plains. — 
Five Thousand Whites murdered in a Year. — Official Libels upon 
the People of the West. — The Military and Indian Agents the Great 



14 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Obstacles to Peace. — No Peaceable Indians on the Plains. — What 
Professed Peaceable Indians do. — The Butchers of Fort Phil. Kear- 
ney in Council with the Military. — No Demand for Punishment. — 
The Crows and Blackfeet. — The Struggle between the Indian and 
the White Man. — How Civilization is arrested by the Savage. — The 
Pioneers will advance, whether protected or not. — How to avert 
Extermination. — Abolish Agencies. — Cease treating with Indians. 
— Choose Competent Military Commanders. — Select Western Troops 
to fight Hostile Tribes. — Proposed Surrender of the Bozeman 
Route a Crime. — Manifest Destiny. .... 364 

LETTER XXXIX. 

The German Evangeline. — Romantic Story of a Daughter of the 
Rhine. — She finds her Faithful Lover in the Rocky Mountains. — 
A Visit to their Cosy Cabin. — Union City deserted. — Waiting for 
News from the Prize-Fight. — Hope deferred. — The Donkey Express 
brings the News. — Indignation of the Bearer of Dispatches from 
the Seat of War. — Con. Oi'em defeated in the Mill. — Tim's Account 
of the Bruise. — ^Business is Business in Montana. — Advertisements. 
• — The Chinese in Montana. — Peonage among them. — Their Women 
mere Articles of Commerce. — The Chinese Dead. — All sent Home 
for Final Burial. — A Suspicious Box received from Mormondom. — 
A Present of Delicious Grapes. — Bruin visits Union City. — A Fruit- 
less Chase.— A Plentiful Winter. . . . . .368 

LETTER XL. 

Meeting with Colonel Beidler. — His Appearance and Dress. — How he 
employs his Time. — The Terror of Desperadoes and Savages. — His 
Complaint that Business is dull. — Local Reports of his Doings. — 
The Montana Legislature. — The only Republican Member ejected. 
— Supremacy of the Positive Rebel Element in Montana. — What the 
Legislature will do. — Montana Winters. — The Storm-King reigns. 
The Clouds a Protection to the Eyes. — Freezing insensibly. — The 
Effect of Dry, Cold Weather.— Health of the Residents.— The 
Mountains to become a Great Resort for Invalids. . . 376 

LETTER XLL 

A Sojourn at the Capital. — Pleasant Weather. — Con. Orem broken 
up in Business. — His Groggery leased for the House of Representa- 
tives. — The Montana Senate. — Virginia City improving. — Bishop 
Tuttle. — His Earnest and Successful Efforts among the Western 
People. — Methodism. — The Energy of the Catholics. — Their Efforts 
to educate the Children of the Mountains. — A Prize-Fight and 
Funeral. — Trial of Professor Hodge for Murder. — His Acquittal. — 
Interesting Entertainment. — Confusion of the Glasses and Hats. — 
Belligerent Attorneys. — How they missed a Funeral. — Judge Willis- 
ton. — The Weather. — The Pleasant Autumn. — Social Amusements 
in the Capital. — Everything ends in a Dance. . . . 384 



CONTENTS. 15 



LETTER XLIL 



The Heroes of Civilization in Montana. — Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders, 
the Volunteer Advocate of the People. — His Defense of Order and 
Signal Triumph over Crime. — The Trial and Execution of George 
Ives. — His Position at the Bar. — Leading the Forlorn Hope of Re- 
publicanism. — Colonel George L. Shoup, the Hero of Sand Creek. — 
His History of that Battle. — His Integrity, Courage, and Benevo- 
lence. — Colonel Neil Howie. — His Capture of '* Dutch John." 
— He commands the Montana Militia. — His Defense of the Gallatin 
Border. — Restrained from OflFensive Movements. — The Tides of 
Fickle Fortune in the Mountains. — The Discoverer of the Comstock 
Mine. . . . . . . . .391 

LETTER XLIIL 

The Pacific Railroads. — The Central Route. — Its Impassable Snows. 
— The Great Achievement of a Pacific Railroad. — The Northern 
Pacific Railroad Line. — The Growth of the Northwestern Terri- 
tories. — A Continuous Line of Civilization from the Atlantic to 
Puget Sound. — Advantage of Distance in the Northern Route. — The 
Western Terminus nearer the Asiatic Commercial Ports than San 
Francisco. — It crosses the Great Rivers of the West. — Advantage in 
its Construction. — Climate on the Northern Route, — Lower Alti- 
tude. — Succession of Hot Springs. — The Incalculable Development 
it will inspire. — Changes in the Present Centres of Trade. — The 
Commerce of the World will pay Tribute to the Northern Railroad. 400 

LETTER XLIV. 

Amusements at the Capital. — The Theatre. — Mingling of Pleasure 
and Business. — The Legislature. — Their Laws. — Committee to ren- 
der the Laws intelligible. — How the Gordian Knot was cut. — Or- 
ganization of the Third House, — A Burlesque Legislature. — The 
Contest for Page. — Interesting Educational Statistics. — The Courts. 
— Fines enforced, — The Jurors whittling on Duty. — Ofiicial Recep- 
tions. — The Bachelor Secretary draws Lots for a Fair Partner. — 
The Hurdy-Gurdy. — An Invitation to dance. — The Indian Ques- 
tion. — The Delusive Report of Peace. — The Folly of Indian Trea- 
ties in the Fall. — Treaties made by Indians to enable them to renew 
Hostilities. — The AYest must have Peace. — How it is to be attained. 409 

LETTER XLV. 

Holiday in the Rocky Mountains. — A Genial Christmas-Day. — 
Sumptuous Dinners and a Jolly Dance, — The Ball. — New-Year's 
Day.— A Ficld-Day of Frolic— The First Call,— The Egg-nog ana- 
lyzed, — Hospitality of the Capital, — The Babies, — A Prize-Fight 
in the House of Representatives, — '' Teddy" and " Chick" have a 
"Mill." — Con. Orem seconds Teddy, and wins, after a Protracted 
Contest.— A Row in the Ring.—" Teddy" the Hero of the Theatre 
and the " Pony." — The Evening Supper. — The Professor's Speech. 418 



16 CONTENTS. 



LETTER XLVI. 

Homeward bound. — The Mountain Cold Snap. — Preparations to brave 
Winter on the Rocky Range. — A Jolly Stage- Coach Party. — Rattle-' 
snake Cliffs. — The Foot of the Rocky Range. — Crossing the Range. 
— Many Drivers and Stable-Men frost-bitten. — Arrival at Pleasant 
Valley. — The Temperature Forty Degrees below Zero. — The Land- 
lady of the Station. — A Fresh Morning Ride. — Several Upsets in 
the Snow. — Snake River Valley. — A more Moderate Temperature. 
— Malade. — The Josephite Mormons. — Arrival at Bear River. . 427 

LETTER XLVIL 

An Early Start from Bear River. — The Great Salt Lake. — Character 
of its Tributaries and its Waters. — Dinner at Ogden. — Arrival at 
Salt Lake City. — The Townsend House. — The Landlord and his 
Three AVives. — Kindness and Hospitality of the Mormons. — Mor- 
mon Drinking-Houses, Billiard-Rooms, and Currency. — The Law 
against Polygamy practically a Dead Letter. — Solution of the 
Vexed Problem. ....... 437 

LETTER XLVIIL 

Leaving Salt Lake. — Crossing the Rocky Range again. — The Winter 
Trip more pleasant than the Summer Trip. — Weber Canon and Weber 
River. — Echo Canon. — A Night Upset. — No Damage done. — A 
Snow-Storm. — The Road lost. — Above the Clouds on the Range. — 
Starlight above, and a Snow-Storm below. — The Professor's Speech. 
— Bear River. — Crossing Quaking Asp Divide. — Bridger Valley. — 
Fort Bridger. — Hank Conner. — A Gay Night-Drive through the 
Mountain-Cliffs. — A Wild Team, and our Experience with it. — 
Green River. — Bitter Creek. — A Baby Passenger. — The Whistle of 
the Locomotive again. — End of a Journey of Three Thousand Miles 
through the Rocky Mountains. ..... 444 

Appendix. ........ 463 



THREE THOUSAND MILES 



THROUGH THE 



ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



LETTER I. 



From Chambcrsburg to Pittsburg. — Parting with Old Priends. — 
The Juniata Valley. — Crossing the Alleghanies. — The Progress 
A of a Quarter of a Century. — A Day in Pittsburg. 

Pittsburg, May 1, 1867. 

A TRUCE with politics and law for a season. I have 
long wished to see the Great West, to gaze upon its virgin 
beauties, learn its gigantic progress, and mingle with the 
sturdy pioneers who are laying the foundations for future 
empires. All intelligent people have read of them, and 
read of them more now than ever before ; but to see them 
as they are, to mess with them, shelter with them, travel 
with them, and share their life as it really is, has long 
been a strong desire with me ; and, if blessed with health 
and safety in travel, I shall devote the summer to the study 
of this great lesson with nature and nature's first help- 
mates themselves. 

I need not say that I turned regretfully from the beauti- 
ful Valley of the Cumberland, with its heartsome homes, 
its fields green with the promise of future plenty, and its 
people congenial and kind. Many parted with me with 
emotions I shall not soon forget, and the sadness of ex 

3 (H) 



18 PARTING WITH OLD FRIENDS. 

changing the comforts of home and the blessings of friends 
for a long and perilous journey was brightened by the 
many earnest aspirations given for a pleasant trip and a 
safe return. Many greatly magnified the dangers of the 
tour, and seemed painfully impressed that it was but an 
invitation to danger or death; but, while no such journey 
can be free from peril, we have the promise of peace on 
the Plains this season, especially on the great overland 
route. Still, it is exposed to perils not known in the 
boundaries of civilization, and they are, therefore, ever 
present in the recollections of friends, and give rise to fears 
for the safety of friends who thus journe}'. Let us all be 
mindful that "there is a Divinity that shapes our ends, 
rough-hew them as we will," and that even the perils of 
the wilderness and of the deep are controlled by Him who 
numbers the very hairs of our heads. I fondly hope to 
return again renewed in vigor m^^self, and with renewed 
health for those I most love ; but, if it cannot thus be, I 
trust that there will be a few, at least, who will not leave 
me unlamented, and who will feel that I have not lived 
entirely in vain. If I shall merit such a tribute from the 
lowly and the children of sorrow, some measure of my aim 
in life will have been fulfilled. 

But enough of sad forebodings. They belong not to the 
hopeful, the earnest, the useful. They will in a time, brief 
enough at best, present their reality, as all in turn accept 
the inevitable doom ; but till then life has its duties, its 
sufferings, its pleasures, and each should be welcomed or 
borne with the fortitude of manhood. 

I never saw the Cumberland Yalley more beautiful 
than when I passed through it on Monday last. It seems 
the home of contentment, of plenty, and of all that should 
make man better from year to year. And after we turned 
our way toward the setting sun from Harrisburg, winding 



PROGRESS OF A QUARTER OF A CENTURY. 19 

along the beautiful Juniata, there were on every hand the 
same evidences of thrift, of order, and of happiness. Now 
and then we would find our wild mountains towering 
over us ; but soon again the beautiful fields and the blos- 
soms of spring would l)reak upon the view. Thus follow- 
ing the sinuosities of the river, still growing smaller and 
smaller as we approach its source in the AUeghanies, we 
had alternate wilds and blooming fields until we landed at 
the very foot of the mountain at Altoona. Wishing to be- 
come used to our journe}^ by degrees, we stopped for the 
night, and took the morning for crossing- the famed AUegha- 
nies. Less than a quarter of a century ago it was deemed 
impossible to cross these great barriers to trade, except 
by inclined planes, at great cost and peril. Slowly the 
weary passenger would be dragged from level to level by 
stationary engines and powerful wire ropes, and hundreds 
of lives have been lost in passing them. Now the iron 
horse may be heard ploughing through the gorges and 
climbing these steep declivities, from the far North down 
to Tennessee. On the North the Philadelphia and Erie 
winds through the great wilderness of our State, bringing 
its vast wealth to the lap of commerce. Here the sound 
of the locomotive is ever heard, bringing its untold meas- 
ure of trade and travel to and from the coast. In Vir- 
ginia the Baltimore and Ohio spans the mountains again ; 
and still farther South the Virginia Central (I believe it 
is) finds its way through and over them to Knoxville, and 
thence to the Gulf. Thus in the matchless progress of a 
quarter of a century have the great mountains of the East 
been leveled, as it were, by the handiwork of man, and 
have ceased to retard the whirl of commerce or the stream 
of travel as we swarm westward to fix new stars of the 
galaxy of the States of the Republic. 

It is worth a week of delay for any tourist to cross the 



20 CROSSING THE ALLEGIIANTES. 

Alleghanies by daylight. I haye passed them often, but 
each time I gaze on their bewildering beauties more in- 
tently than before. A span of iron horses stood hitched to 
our train, as the crowd filed out from breakfast to nestle 
down comfortably again in the seats. They stood there, 
quietly humming their yoluntary, as if to denote that all 
was in readiness. At the signal from the conductor, they 
belch forth their black column of smoke, hiss off their 
steam, and, after a short, shrill, double scream, move off 
with their immense load with a majesty that is sublime. 
Slowly, but steadily, they climb the steep grade, wind 
around the famous horseshoe, pass on up the mountain- 
side so high that the dwellings below are scarcely per- 
ceptible, and finally plunge into the bowels of the earth, 
nearly three hundred feet from the surface, and for seven- 
eighths of a mile there is total darkness, save as an occa- 
sional column of smoke brings with it a shadow of dull 
light to break the gloom about you. Soon again the train 
emerges on the western side, and the great Alleghanies 
have been ascended so gradually and so quickly that those 
who had not been attracted by the scenery would be igno- 
rant of the exploit. Thence the descent is made at a high 
rate of speed, following the windings of the Conemaugh, 
which starts in a little spring on the mountain-top, and 
courses its way to the Gulf. From the mountains to Pitts- 
burg there is everything to remind the Pennsylvanian that 
he is still in Pennsylvania. The same thrifty agriculture 
and slow but steady progress are observable everywhere, 
until the dark cloud of smoke that begins to search its way 
into the cars reminds us that we are about to enter Pitts- 
burg. 

I have spent a day here most pleasantly, devoting my 
spare time mainly to friendly chats with the editorial 
brethren. I found Brigham, of the " Commercial," full of 



A DAY IN PITTSBURG. 21 

energy, and hopeful of everything — of politics, of the 
country, and of the ''Commercial." I was pained to find 
Foster, of the ''Dispatch," an invalid. He is about to 
start for France and the Holy Land, with the hope of 
saving for a time the only lung he has left. May he have 
many years yet in store for him ! Caldwell, of the "Com- 
mercial," long the Washington correspondent of the "Re- 
pository," I fear has cut his local reports short for to- 
morrow by his kind attentions to me, and as I write at one 
of the "Commercial" editorial desks, Brigham emerges 
now and then from his pile of exchanges in the adjoining 
sanctum, to talk a little more of politics. At two I leave 
for Chicago, and, as the clock points to one, I must send 
this just as it is, without even attempting to read it, much 
less correct it. 



3* 



LETTER 11. 

Pittsburg to Chicago. — Farewell to the Pennsylvania Mountains. 
— The Progress of the "West. — Western Boys. — A Delightful 
Sleeping-Car, — The Conventionalities of Society on Sleeping- 
Cars. — An Early Breakfast. — A Locomotive Eace. — Excitement 
of the Passengers. — "Westward Travel stopped by the Floods. 

Chicago, May 3, 1867. 
We left Pittsburg by the Fort Wayne and Chicago Road 
at three p.m. yesterday, and arrived at this place at eleven 
this morning. It is a pleasant journey. The cars are 
elegant, the road mostly straight and in good order, and 
the sleeping-cars are called ''palace cars" with some war- 
rant for the high-sounding title. I took a farewell of our 
noble Pennsylvania mountains as Ave were whirled into 
the Buckeye State. They have no fellows east of the 
Mississippi, and as we passed westward the level plains 
became painfully monotonous. In Pennsylvania and East- 
ern Ohio vegetation was pretty well advanced ; the 
cherries, peaches, and pears were in blossom, and the 
apple was thrusting out its leaves, soon to be followed by 
the beautiful harbinger of its valued fruit ; but as we ap- 
proached Indiana the country seemed to be frost-bound, 
and the farther we got west the more dreary and winter- 
like the fields and vegetation looked. Ohio looks cosy, 
despite its want of mighty mountains. It has majestic 
forests — too much so, often, for the comfort of the husband- 
man — and her fields have an old-fashioned Pennsylvania 
look that makes me feel quite at home among them. But, 
as we shorten the distance between us and the Missis- 
(22) 



WESTERN BOYS. 23 

sipp], the fields and houses become more and more strange, 
until the steady old-time ways of the East are entirely 
lost sight of. They do nothing in the way of progress out 
here just as we do it East. They are restless, impatient, 
and original. If they need a house, they build it at once ; 
put up a place to cook, eat, and sleep in first, and finish it off 
afterward. A Pennsylvanian must plan and think; then 
he must prepare; then he must dig, and lay the founda- 
tion ; then he erects the walls, the roofs, and finally finishes 
it for a residence. While he is thinking and planning, the 
Buckeye or the Hoosier or the Sucker will move into his 
new house. True, it will have no cellar, no foundation but 
four blocks, perhaps but partly weatherboarded, but he 
has a house, and he finishes it when and how it suits him ; 
so with his fences, his out-buildings, his everything. Even 
the children out this way look older for their ages than do 
ours, and would seem to be born much after the general 
Western style of go-ahead-ativeness. They seem to be 
born frequently in most families, and I should judge, from 
their independence of manner, that they don't consume any 
great quantity of Winslow's Soothing S3a'up, and that 
they don't average above one occasional nurse to a house- 
hold. They climb up the bumpers of the cars, crawl under 
the locomotive at the stations, look in at the doors, and fre- 
quently strut through the cars as if they owned the train 
and were prepared to make a respectable bid for the pas- 
sengers. A man needs to pass through the West l)ut once 
to understand that those who talk about a hundred millions 
of population in this country in less than half a century, 
are not very wild arithmeticians after all. 

We had a delightful sleeping-car, as I have stated, and 
I passed the night in comparative comfort. I never could 
get a good refreshing sleep in a car, and never hope to do 
so. But, whether sleep can be wooed successfully or not 
in them, they are a great institution, and a luxury to the 



24 ^ DELIGHTFUL SLEEPING-CAR. 

traveler. A sleeping-car always makes a jolly, family-like 
company, and there is nothing that destroys the convention- 
alities of society so speedily and so thoroughly, in the mat- 
ter of getting acquainted, as "turning in" on board of one 
of these wandering lodging-houses. When we start out, 
all or most of the company strangers to each other, all, of 
course, observe due dignity, and allow acquaintance to win 
its way by gradual approaches. Now and then a rollick- 
ing bal)y will force a smile from some sympathetic mother 
distant from her loved ones, and the mothers at once be- 
come friends, relate their travels, discuss their homes, 
husbands, babies, houses, pullets, and poodles, and share 
their lunch-baskets. A wayward boy, or a lovely girl 
with sunbeams dancing on her face as if playing upon a 
rippling stream, will insensibly break the reticence of the 
bachelor, gather the spare candies, nuts, and cakes from 
the pockets of the fathers, and end the campaign by a 
friendly chat between the old folks. One little, blue-eyed, 
taffy-curled girl emptied my pockets of the debris of my 
last campaign among the children of Alleghan\', and made 
me a willing purchaser of all the jim-cracks the train 
vender had to tickle the fancy or palate of these miniature 
editions of ourselves. Of course the mother was appre- 
ciative, and a pleasant acquisition was added to our party, 
to last till we reached the Plains. Thus do the genial and 
the obdurate alike surrender to railroad acquaintances in a 
sleeping-car, and, when night comes, we all seem much as 
one family, mutually sympathetic and generous. A woman 
may even crimp her hair before the bachelor without pro- 
voking a surly remark, and prodigious waterfalls, and hoops, 
and ribbons, and the thousand other things which pertain 
to female adornment may be scattered in wild profusion 
around the car, swinging from hooks, and impeding loco- 
motion by side blockades; but all is taken in good part, and 
there is peace and good will in the groat family thus im- 



AN EARLY BREAKFAST. 25 

provised upon a few hours' acquaintance. Occasionally a 
coy damsel or a Teteran spinster seems to rebel against the 
free-and-easy manners of the sleeping-car ; but they merely 
make themselv^es uncomfortable, and are sure to provoke 
just that notice and comment they least want. I pity a 
fastidious old maid in a sleeping-car. She always keeps 
watching everybody else with such palpa1)]e suspicion that 
she compels everybody else to watch her, and her most 
studied efforts to protect herself from profane eyes and 
speech make a score of eyes peer in upon her from behind 
curtains and by side glances, while the lady who accepts 
the situation goes free. If a mishap falls to the lot of any 
in a sleeping-car, it invariably falls to the one who tries 
most spasmodically to avert it, and there are few who do 
not enjoy it when the moment of confusion comes. When 
people do their best, they cannot secure the privacy that 
most persons would prefer ; but when all agree to do the 
best they can, the great mantle of charity hides what the 
more tangible fabrics fail to protect from the gaze of the 
curious or rude. We were waked at half-past four, with 
notice that we must be ready for breakfast at five precisely ; 
and I need not say that at that unromantic hour the Greek 
Slave might have been personated in any of the berths 
without arresting the heav}^ yawns which mingled with 
the hurried preparations for breakfast. 

When within about twenty miles of Chicago, the mo- 
notony of the low, marshy, ill-improved prairie of this 
section was broken by a regular locomotive race. The 
Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago, and the Michigan 
Southern, come together on the same time, and for twelve 
miles the two roads are rarely over one hundred feet apart. 
The country is perfectly level, the roads straight, and there 
is every incentive to a trial of speed. It seems that they 
have a daily race, and it is neck and neck between them. 
Whichever train happens to have the best locomotive or 



26 A LOCOMOTIVE RACE. 

the lightest train, usually wins. We had ten cars and the 
Michigan Southern but seven, so the odds were against 
us ; but our engineer, brakesmen, firemen, porters, news- 
venders, baggage-masters, conductors, all entered into the 
spirit of the race with boundless enthusiasm, and I need 
not say that most of the passengers watched with intense 
interest the issue of the struggle. The baggage-master of 
the Michigan Southern was first seen standing on the low- 
est step of his car, with a roll of bank-notes in his hand, 
trying to make himself understood by pantomime, in the 
midst of the thunder of two large trains flying at their 
utmost speed, that he would bet either his cash or drinks 
on his train. I could not see whether his banter was ac- 
cepted or not, but, if it was, he must have been winner, for we 
were distanced the length of our train in the race. Both 
trains stopped at several stations during the run, but both 
alw^ays stopped at the same place, and it w^as ludicrous to 
see how old women, and their bundles and baskets, were 
hustled in and out of both trains to prevent unnecessary 
delay. One old man on our train wanted to get off, but he 
had one question too many to ask the conductor, and he 
was sent whirling along to the next station, in spite of his 
violent gesticulations. At last the iron horses divided in 
their course as they entered Chicago, and both seemed to 
forget the friendly strife, as their shrill song told us that 
our journey was ended. 

I would like to write about Chicago, but I cannot. It 
seems to be a second New York. Although it has but 
two hundred and fifty thousand population, its main streets 
rival Broadway in magnificence and life, while its beautiful 
Wabash and Michigan Avenues tell the story of its wealth 
in social life. The train leaves at 8.15 this morning for 
Omaha, and I must hasten away. I hope to be there by 
Saturday noon, as the road, recently torn up by the floods, 
is again in running order. 



LETTER III. 

Chicago to Omaha. — Chicago a Fast City. — Getting News in the 
West. — The Chicago and Northwestern Kailroad. — Its Hasty 
and Imperfect Construction. — The Missouri Flood. — Western 
Iowa. — "Square Meals." — Western Luxuries. — A Wreck. — 
Delaj^ and Scarcity of Provisions. — Lunch-baskets. — A Forag- 
ing Party. — Inditferent Success. — "All Right again." — An- 
other Stop at Honey brook. — Another Hunt for Rations. — 
Dealing with a Western Dame for Milk and Bread. — Swindled 
by Biddy. — Council Blufls. — An Unpleasant Night in the Cars. 
— Trouble in crossing the Missouri River. — The People of 
Omaha. 

OxMAHA, May 6, 1867. 

I HAD a pretty fair inside view of Chicago. I got there 
in the midst of the great riot on Thursday last, and left it 
the next morning in the midst of a grand fire. It is a fast 
place — fast in a fight, fast in a fire, fast in business, and 
fast generally. They do up a riot in the most improved 
style, and can make more noise at a fire twice over than 
Philadelphia. The laboring-men got up a flurry over the 
inauguration of the eight-hour law on the 1st instant, and 
had, as was appropriate and commendable, speeches from 
politicians and dignitaries, and processions with banners, 
etc. But they committed the fatal error of supposing that, 
because no man could compel them to work more than 
eight hours per day, they could compel every fellow-laborer 
to work just that number and no more. It was on this dif- 
ference that they threw Chicago into disorder and did 
themselves the dishonor of attempting anarchy. 

As I left Chicago, I left all news behind. By making 

(27) 



28 GETTING NEWS IN THE WEST. 

several efforts along the railroad at the telegraph-stations, 
I managed to learn the result of the fire that was raging 
when I took the train; but as for keeping posted in the 
events of the day, beyond this single fact, I might as well 
have been in China ever since. As yet there are no papers 
here later than New York of the 29th ultimo, and Chicago 
of the 1st. There are daily papers published in most of 
the Western towns of any size ; but they afford but a 
meagre outline of the events of the world which we are 
used to enjoy so fully in the East with our breakfast or 
tea. I judge that as I go westward I shall learn to dis- 
pense pretty much with general news ; but the force of 
habit will make me break in upon far-western rules on this 
point as often as a newspaper or a telegraphic operator can 
be captured. 

We had rather a variable time from Chicago to this 
place, and, upon the whole, quite a jolly trip. As varia- 
tions are the spice of travel, I do not regret that we took 
the widest latitude in reaching and crossing the Missouri. 
At Chicago we were assured that the train would go 
through on time to the Missouri ; but, if the princes of old, 
against whom the world was cautioned, were less to be 
trusted than railroad managers out West, those who had 
to deal with the princes should not have needed the Divine 
injunctioii. From Chicago to this point it is four hundred 
and ninety-four miles by rail, and the line runs almost 
directly west, thus bringing trade and travel to the plains 
by the shortest route. Until last winter, the emigrant and 
sojourner for the mountains reached the Missouri at some 
point below this, and generally left Omaha out of their 
programme ; but the construction of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road for two hundred and ninety miles west of this place, 
last fall, necessitated the hasty construction of the connect- 
ing link between this and the Mississippi at Fulton, so as 



CHICAGO AND NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD. 29 

to open an unbroken and direct railroad line from the 
Atlantic to Platte City, the point to which the Pacific Rail- 
road is now run. The result was that the Chicago and 
Northwestern road was forced through last fall in the 
most imperfect manner. It was flung down on the prairie 
at the rate of two miles per day, and, while the bed re- 
mained frozen, it did tolerably well ; but, when the thaw 
and spring floods came, it imitated the Dutchman's milk 
in lying around loose generally. The flood of the Missouri 
this spring was more extensive than usual, requiring, it is 
said, the oldest inhabitant to remember its counterpart. It 
put a score or more miles of the Chicago and Northwest- 
ern road completely under Avater, and floated it about, with 
its occasional rude embankments and improvised culverts, 
as if it was but a plaything for the Western elements. As 
the tide of spring travel had set in for the plains — ten times 
greater than ever before — the management could not afford 
to wait to repair the road and have trade seek a southern 
line to St. Joseph or St. Louis. Accordingly, it was an- 
nounced officially, a week ago, that the road was repaired, 
while miles of the track were still frolicking with the frogs 
and other occupants of the ponds and lakes of the prairies. 
Although still doubting, I ventured to try the road on 
Friday, just four days after it was pronounced to be thor- 
oughly repaired, hoping that we might do rather better 
over it than to strike St. Joseph and have to stem the 
boisterous tide of the Missouri to this point. It is well 
that I had some doubts, — sufficient at least to distrust the 
regular railroad eating-stations to satisfy the demands of 
hunger. I had a bountiful lunch put up in Chicago, to 
guard against accidents in the way of "square meals;" 
and but for that precaution we must have had a pro- 
tracted fast. All went well until we got to Dennison on 
Saturday morning, where we had our last regular meal 

4 



30 '^ SQUARE meals:' 

during the journey, leaving us a period of thirty-six hours 
without any food but what we had with us and what we 
foraged from the scant larders of the pioneers. Be it re- 
membered that Western Iowa — at least along the line of 
the railroad — has scores of miles at times without the sign 
of an inhabitant. Often during the tedious journey over 
the monotonous prairies, broken occasionally only by bleak 
sandhills, I looked in vain in every direction for a house 
or a field. It has no timber, is but poorly watered, and 
until now has presented no inducement to the husband- 
man to l)reak up its fertile soil. The transition from the 
luxurious tables of the East to the "square meals" of the 
West is, fortunately, gradual, and by the time the traveler 
reaches Omaha he is prepared for "hog and hominy," or 
whatever may be presented. The last cooking I found fit 
for a table was in Chicago. As we got out into Iowa, 
the Western style grew more and more original, until a 
break in the road brought us right into genuine pioneer 
living. Our last meal was at Dennison, Iowa, where we 
had the inevitable bacon and eggs, with hot, heavy, greasy 
biscuits, made apparently with flour, corn-meal, hog's fat, 
saleratus and water, and served up smoking hot. This is 
the favorite bread of the Far West. They usually have it 
at every meal — always hot, and their children begin on it 
before they have teeth to masticate it. But it seems that 
travelers in the West, however fastidious about their diet 
at home, are able to accommodate themselves to a diet 
here that would require the force of medical attendants to 
be doubled if used in the East. The active life, pure air, 
and the magic effect of change of scenery, habits, exercise, 
association, etc. fit most persons for living in Western style 
with comparative comfort. 

AVhen within fifty miles of Council Bluffs, we were 
stopped by the wreck of a mixed burden and passenger 



A WESTERN RAILROAD. 31 

train, that was piled up on and all about the track. But 
two miserable shanties were in sight in a circle of twenty 
miles, and scarcely a shrub was visible. It was eight 
miles to the nearest station, and fifty miles to the nearest 
point from which the necessary machinery could be had to 
clear the wreck. It was about ten o'clock in the morning, 
and the cold, sharp wind was sweeping a hurricane over 
the prairie. The passengers got out, and, in spite of the 
repeated assurances of the conductor that we should "get 
right along shortly," it was clear to all that we were in 
for the most of the day. I walked along the track for half 
a mile, to take a look at a Western railroad, and I think it 
well that my inspection of the road did not occur until I 
was over most of it. I think I would have walked in 
preference to spending two nights on such a road. The 
bed Avas made by throwing up an embankment some three 
or six feet above the level of the prairie, of the soft loam 
dug up alongside of the track. Light, indifferent ties were 
then thrown upon it, the rails spiked down, and the space 
betw^een the ties was not even filled up with dirt. The 
hard freeze of the winter kept the road in fair order until 
recently ; but now the track seems as if laid on a bed of 
hard dough. In walking over it the ties Avould sink down 
in the earth from my weight, and a glance along the rails 
showed that it had settled irregularly, crooked, and dis- 
jointed, and in places seemed to have slid bodily to one 
side or the other. There was no help, however, then but 
to go over it, and as it was just as bad to go back as to go 
forward, and the shortest part of the road was ahead, I 
had no choice but to wait patiently and philosophically 
for the end of the journey. 

In the mean time, the question of provisions became a 
serious one. Our party had a clever-sized lunch-basket 
filled ; but there were thirty others in the car, some of 



32 A FORAGING PARTY. 

them women and cliildren, who had no supplies. Misfor- 
tune soon breaks down all reserve, and the provisions on 
hand w^ere divided around as if we were all of one family. 
How quickly a lunch-basket in a hungry crowd makes every- 
body sociable ! First, all the children of the car will gather 
around it, in spite of the threats and frowns of tender 
mammas, and through them the way is easy to an inti- 
mate acquaintance with all. But our supplies were insuf- 
ficent for the party, and we improvised a foraging corps. 
There were but two shanties within sight, and they were 
most unpromising for a successful foray in the provision 
line ; but they were the onl}^ possible points of attack, and 
we charged on them. One of them was entirely out. They 
had no eggs, no meat, no bread, no milk, no butter — in fact, 
nothing. The other had a few hard fat biscuits and some 
cold bacon, which were purchased at a price that would 
have made the Continental cashier blush. It was but 
little we got, but that little was somewhat like the widow's 
cruse — it went a great way and lasted well. I made a 
satisfactory dinner on half a biscuit and a small cut of 
bacon. After nearly ten hours' delay, the welcome sound 
of the locomotive whistle was heard, and "all right" was 
called by the conductor. As most of the road had been 
submerged between that point and the river, and part of it 
swept away and but temporarily repaired, I felt but little 
confidence that we could get through that night, — if we 
could get the train through at all. I amused myself, as 
we passed along, watching the soft sides of the road and 
calculating the probable loss of life and limbs that Avould 
follow a run-off. Our conductor and engineer seemed, 
however, to value their own lives, and the train proceeded 
with great caution — at no time running at the rate of over 
ten miles per hour, and generally not exceeding six. We 
were not interrupted in our course for some thirty miles, 



ANOTHER HUNT FOR RATIONS. 33 

when at the village of Honeybrook we came upon another 
Avreek, and had to stop for repah's. It was now getting 
dark, and, as we had dined very sparingly, and had no 
prospect whatever of supper, I renewed my foraging efforts. 
There were half a dozen shanties scattered about the place, 
including an Irish railroad boarding shanty, so I hoped to 
be able to gathtn' some eggs and potatoes — the only things 
they could cook without rendering them unfit to eat by 
dirt and grease. An ex-member of Congress went with 
me, while the others divided ofT in squads to raid upon 
the different houses. The Congressman had a child in his 
party, and milk was requisite to its comfort, and we drove 
the cows with us up to the door of the house we assailed. 
We went in to negotiate, and found the lady of the house, 
with a blooming daughter just doing up her hair in the 
last weekly paper, preparatory to frizzing it for Sunday. 
We asked in turn for eggs, meat, potatoes, bread, and milk, 
but they had none of most of the articles, and none to 
spare of any of them. '' But my child must have milk," 
said the grave national legislator. *' So must my calves," 
said the Western matron, with a dignity and independence 
that showed her to be master of the situation and de- 
termined to keep it. The Congressman became patron- 
izing, and proposed that he would milk the cow, and that 
I would nurse her baby, if she would consent to sell enough 
to give the 3"oung Congressman his supper. Finally the 
lady came in ; but she would not trust either of us with 
the cows, and she milked a quart, which she gave for half 
a dollar. While the milking was going on, I negotiated 
with the daughter for a loaf of bread by a tempting offer ; 
and was glad to get it, notwithstanding the untidiness of 
the bakery, and the general air of filth about them. We 
next got two dozen of eggs, boiled by a man who had a 
sort of a boarding-car to feed the hands making repairs, at 

4* 



34 SWINDLED BY BIDDY. 

the modest price of one dollar and a half; and the same 
generous gentleman made us a gallon of what he called 
tea, for another half a dollar. We called it tea, because 
he said it was tea, and we could not prove the contrary. 
We then tried the Irish Biddy of the shanty to get some 
potatoes roasted, and finally got her to agree to roast us 
two dozen for half a dollar, in advance. She put them in 
the stove — so much I saw of the potatoes ; but I do not 
know that they ever came out. There were cakes — the in- 
evitable fat biscuit — in the oven, the fire was bad, the cook 
was mad, and I saw that if there was any chance for the 
train to get off within an hour or two, the potatoes would 
not be done until just after the train started. An hour 
afterward, the whistle sounded, and we left the potatoes 
and the half-dollar with Biddy. She had a supper to her 
liking, if we did go hungr}^ for want of them. 

From the romantic village of Honeybrook, we got along 
slowly but safely to the river. We arrived within a mile 
of Council Bluffs a little before ten o'clock at night, and 
there our conductor, engineer, and everybody but the car- 
boy left us to take care of ourselves. We were ticketed 
to Omaha, on the western side of the river ; but the only 
answer we could get from any one was that we had better 
stay where we were, as we could not get rooms in Coun- 
cil Bluffs, and would not cross the river before the next 
morning. We had all become patient by this time, and 
made as merry as we could over our helpless position. We 
concluded to stay where we were, and, as we had a sleep- 
ing-car, we went to bed on the track, like a family of gen- 
uine Micawbers, waiting for something to turn up. Morn- 
ing came, but no one called to claim the car or to tell us 
where to go. The flats were wet and muddy from the late 
overflow, the omnibuses would not run between the cars 
and the town, so we disposed of the remnant of our last 



TROUBLE IN CROSSING THE MISSOURI 35 

evening's lunch, and patiently waited for somebody to 
come and put us and our baggage across the river. Once 
I thought I had cut the Gordian knot. I found the agent 
of the Transfer Company, and was about negotiating to 
get us across ; but the treatj^ was suddenly terminated by 
the information that the Transfer Company had not break- 
fasted, and that nothing could be done until after that 
important event. I kindly proposed to breakfast with the 
Transfer Company ; but the Transfer Company preferred 
to breakfast alone, so I did not breakfast at all. In the 
mean time, impatience was gaining supremacy in our se- 
verelj^-tested circle. The children were crying for want 
of proper food, and matrons and men were not by any 
means jocular, nor yet devoutly disposed, although it was 
Sunday. To add to the discomfort, the wind was sweep- 
ing across the river most furiously, and it was keenly cold. 
A muskrat enlivened the party by swimming up along- 
side of our car, and sailing around us as if he wanted to 
be sociable. Soon after bang went a rifle from the front 
car; but the muskrat sailed on leisurely as the bullet 
struck the water two rods ahead of him. The ice once 
broken, rifles gleamed from ever}^ car, and half a score of 
balls were sent after the now retreating rat ; but I was 
glad to notice that all were harmless. It was to me an 
unusual Sunday service ; but, under the circumstances, no 
one complained of the irreverent break of the monotony of 
starvation and vexatious delay. 

At last the Transfer Company managed to get break- 
fast, and b}^ eleven o'clock there were coaches brought up 
to take us to the river, and thence across on the boat. We 
put the ladies inside, and fourteen gentlemen got on out- 
side, filling the boot, the top, the driver's seat ; and hang- 
ing on all around. We had four miles of staging before 
reaching the river, and when we did get there, the wind 



3G THE PEOPLE OF OMAHA. 

was so high that the boat could not be forced from the 
shore for nearly half an hour, notwithstanding the puffing 
of her engines and the splashing of her wheels. But 
patience and perseverance overcame all, and by noon j^es- 
terday we were safe at the Herndon House ; a house equal 
to a first-class city hotel in size and charges, — further 
deponent saith not. 

Such was our trip across the two great rivers of the 
West to the eastern terminus of what is called the Plains. 
Upon the whole, it was as pleasant as we could expect, 
and we have all enjo3^ed it, notwithstanding its privations 
and delays. I have not been here over twenty-four hours, 
and everybod}^ knows me, and I know pretty much every- 
body. People don't wait for introductions. Your name 
is read on the register, and you are at once addressed by 
name, your journey and business inquired into, and infor- 
mation freely given you. The man is to be pitied who 
cannot at once like the Western business people ; they are 
generous, frank, kind, and clever, and make you feel at 
home at once. I had not been an hour at the hotel, before 
the landlord, to whom I had never spoken, came up to me 
where I was standing on the porch, threw his arm over 
my shoulder, helped himself to my tobacco, named me, 
and told me where I was going, how long I expected to be 
away, and gave me all the good advice about the plains 
he had to spare. He is but a t3q)e of the enterprise and 
go-ahead-ativeness of the Great West — the people who 
will, in a quarter of a century more, change our great com- 
mercial centres, and make the seat of Empire west of the 
Father of Waters. 



LETTER lY. 

Council Bluffs. — The Enterprise and Thrift of Omaha. — A Speci- 
men AVestern City. — How Houses are built in a Day. — The 
Indian War. — General Augur's projected Campaign in the 
Hostile Country. — Position and Numbers of many of the In- 
dian Tribes unknown. — Our Military Force inadequate for 
War. — Embarrassments of the Indian Problem. — The Inevita- 
ble Fate of the Red Man. — Sympathy of the Military with the 
Indians. — The Opinions of the Western People. 

Omaha, May 7, 1867. 
Council Bluffs was once the City of Promise on this 
line, and is still a most active and. growing place, with 
two daily papers, many fine buildings, and a most enter- 
prising people. But the perfection of Western enterprise 
and thrift, of Western styles and manners, of Western 
hazard and progress, is to be found on this side of the 
Missouri, in Omaha. It has over ten thousand of a popu- 
lation, and more carriages than any town of the same size 
east of the Alleghanies; sells more goods and at higher 
prices ; deals out town lots by the foot at more fabulous 
rates ; has more hotels, which are better patronized, dirtier, 
and dearer; builds more houses in a day, and rents them 
for more money; plays poker with a higher ante, faro 
and keno with a more liberal limit ; runs horses oftener 
and for higher stakes, than any other city of ten thousand 
people I have ever read of. It expects to surpass Chicago 
and St. Louis in a few years, and talks of being the national 
cnpital by the time our sons go to Congress. The poor 
Pawnee Indian wanders through the streets bewildered at 

(37) 



38 THE INDIAN WAR. 

this high carnival of progress ; for a week's absence trans- 
forms streets and rears structures where was vacancy be- 
fore. One gentleman told me that while at supper a house 
was reared and greeted him on his return to his ofBx^e. 
The houses are framed in Chicago and sent here ready to 
put up, and it is done with marvelous speed. A new and 
much-needed hotel is just under contract. It is to be one 
hundred and three by ninety-five feet, three stories high, 
and is to be completed in sixty-six days from the date of 
the articles. More than that, it will be done ; on the sixty- 
seventh day it will be full of guests, and likely the sixty- 
eighth will witness a grand ball. Fractions of a hundred 
dollars seem to be unknown as rents. An ordinary store- 
room, such as would rent for two hundred dollars or 
thereabouts in a good location in one of our Eastern 
towns, has scores of applicants for it here at from $1800 
to $2000 per annum. They are generally one and a half 
or two stories high, built in the cheapest manner of wood, 
and in any New York village would not cost more than 
one-fourth of one j^ear's rent in Omaha. Everybody be- 
lieves that the already fabulous prices will advance steadily. 
I think differently, but have not ventured to set the whole 
city into commotion hj saying so. I doul)t whether any 
one would be excused for expressing the opinion that there 
might possibly be a returning tide of sweeping disaster 
in the headlong business and feverish speculation of this 
city. 

I found the " Tribune" of the 1st instant to-day, and was 
not a little annoyed at the startling dispatches from St. 
Louis about the so-called Indian war. I see that the 
'' Herald" has had dispatches from Leavenworth stating 
that General Augur was about to move west from Fort 
Phil. Kearney with six thousand troops, and that eleven 
thousand hostile Indians were encamped on the line of his 



THE INDIAN WAR. 39 

march between Forts Phil. Kearney and C. F. Smith. I 
had just returned from a protracted interview with General 
Augur when I saw a divSpatch in the " Tribune" correcting- 
the " Herald's" sensation dispatch. The truth is that there 
are not five thousand troops in all, and there are not the 
half of eleven thousand Indian warriors who are hostile 
or doubtful in the whole of General Augur's department; 
and so far from being about to march from Fort Phil. 
Kearney west, he will not get his troops to Fort Laramie 
before the 1st of June, will not start from there on his 
expedition before the 10th or 15th of the same month, 
and cannot reach Fort Phil. Kearney before the middle 
of July. When he does start from Fort Laramie, his force 
will consist, as I am officially informed, of the Second 
Cavalry, the Thirtieth Infantr}-, a battalion of the Eigh- 
teenth Infantry, and a battalion of Pawnee scouts num- 
bering about two hundred — giving him an effective force of 
about two thousand men, nearly one-half of them mounted. 
It seems to be a small force to move against the Indians, 
according to the general conceptions of Eastern people 
about the Indian war. The impression prevails generally 
that the campaigns of General Hancock south of the Platte, 
of General Augur north of the Platte to the Yellowstone, 
and of General Terr}'^ up the Missouri, are intended as a 
war of exterminatibn against the Indians. Such is not the 
expectation of the commanders. If this were their pur- 
pose, the general criticism of the Eastern press on the folly 
of hunting Indians with infantry and artillery would be 
just. If the Indians were now engaged in a general war, 
as is persistently represented by speculators and other in- 
terested parties, they could drive all the troops east of the 
Missouri in sixty days, or scalp two-thirds of them if they 
preferred. Not a coach or train could pass across the 
mountains; and yet the overland coach runs daily, and 



40 GENERAL AUGUR'S PROJECTED CAMPAIGN. 

trains pass over all but the Powder River route with com- 
parative safety. Occasionally a weak train is captured on 
the Smoky Hill route, through Kansas, an^ north of Fort 
Laramie travel is not allowed, while the massacre of Fort 
Phil. Kearney indicates a savage, implacable hostility in 
the Powder River region ; but as yet the Indians have 
made no hostile demonstrations looking like general war, 
such as is anticipated in the East. 

General Augur is an old Indian-fighter, and understands 
the Indian character well. He spent some ten years be- 
fore the rebellion in fighting steadily with the Indians on 
the Pacific slopes — a race equally as valorous as our Sioux 
and Cheyennes. He is an accomplished officer, will com- 
mand his expedition in person — with Brevet Major-Gen- 
eral Gibbon second in command — and understands well 
that he is neither expected nor prepared to wage a suc- 
cessful offensive war against the red men. He will go 
upon the Powder River route, garrison it, fight when neces- 
sary, either on the offensive or the defensive, and punish 
with relentless severity all cruelties committed by his 
foes. When it is considered that to us, even at the head- 
quarters of the department, the actual position of half the 
tribes of Nebraska and Dakota is unknown, save by con- 
jecture, the Eastern public can judge how wild are their 
calculations as to the results of the Indian expeditions. 
There are in General Augur's department but four or five 
tribes which are known to be hostile, and some of them 
are what might be termed semi-hostile ; for, while they are 
dissatisfied and unfriendly, they have not marshaled their 
warriors, as yet, for the war-path. In this list may be 
classed the Arrapahoes, the Lower Brules, the Yancton- 
nais, and the Sans Arcs. The tribes in this Military Depart- 
ment either wholly or partially hostile, or whose position 
is not definitely known, arc as follows, viz., the Ogalallas 



POSITION AND NUMBERS OF THE INDIANS. 41 

and Brules of the Platte, numbering seven thousand eight 
hundred, mostly friendly, living on the Republican River; 
the Cheyennes, north of the Platte, numbering eighteen 
hundred, all hostile ; the Arrapahoes, seven hundred and 
fifty strong; the Lower Brules, twelve hundred strong, 
accepted as hostile, but not certainly known to be so; the 
Blackfeet Sioux (a roving offshoot of the regular Black- 
feet), thirteen hundred strong, thriving and hostile ; the Min- 
neconjous, numbering two thousand two hundred, mostly 
hostile, but divided ; the Uncopapas, eighteen hundred 
strong, and the Ogalallas of the north, two thousand four 
hundred strong, known as hostile ; and the Yanctonnais, 
two thousand four hundred strong, and the Sans Arcs, six- 
teen hundred strong, inclined to be hostile, but divided. 
The Two Kettles are friendly on their reservation; and the 
Crows, four thousand strong, have always been friends, 
and are the deadly enemies of the Sioux. The Pawnees, 
the Utes, and other lesser tribes in this Department (Iowa, 
Nebraska, Dakota, and Utah) are all friendly. The num- 
bers given above are the entire population of the several 
tribes, and it is a safe estimate that if all not known to be 
friendly should unite on the war-path the}^ could not mar- 
shal five thousand warriors, while it is reasonably certain 
that, by treaties now in process, fully half of the warriors 
regarded as hostile or unfriendl}^ will be made neutral or 
effective allies against the Indians persisting in warfare. 
Already two hundred Pawnees are enlisted as scouts by 
General Augur, and fifteen hundred Crows have formally 
proposed to him, through the Indian Commission, to join his 
forces against the Sioux, on the condition that the Yellow- 
stone country (from which the Crows were driven by the 
Sioux) shall be restored to them. Just what General Augur 
will do when he moves west from Laramie, a month hence, 
cannot now be even calculated. General Sully's commission, 

5 



42 INEVITABLE FATE OF THE RED MAN. 

now well on to Fort Phil. Kearney, will have exhausted 
its powers to make peace, and to combine the friendly In- 
dians against the unfriendly, if the shock of savage war- 
fare must come ; and his letters quite recently received by 
General Augur are very hopeful of peace, or rather that a 
general war can be averted. If war must come, then we 
are entirely unprepared for it, for there are not one-fifth 
the number of troops here necessary even to keep open 
the overland route and the Missouri River — the two great 
thoroughfares — much less to exterminate the Indians. 
That the red man must fade away, and that during the 
present century, I do not doubt; but his contact with civili- 
zation will do the fatal work more rapidly than a hun- 
dred thousand soldiers. He accepts all the vices and a 
few of the virtues of the pale-faces, and disease and dissi- 
pation are fast diminishing the numbers and degrading 
still lower in the scale of creation the once proud inhabit- 
ant of the wilderness. That he has little sympathy, and 
that nine-tenths of the people look to his extermination 
either approvingl}^ or anxiously, is not to be questioned; 
but it is remarkable that most military officers and govern- 
ment agents who have maintained an unsullied reputation 
in dealing with the Indians, cling to the conviction that 
the red men are deeply wronged, and that if fairly treated 
they would, as a rule, maintain faith and friendship with 
the whites. General Augur informed me that he has not 
been able to learn of a single chief who signed the treaty 
at Savanne last spring engaging in hostilities. Red Cloud, 
the leader of the present difficulties, refused to sign the 
treaty, as did some others who were present and are now 
at war. This is directly at variance with the generally 
received opinion among the whites, who believe that the 
treaties were made to get ammunition to capture trains 
and emigrants. Kinety-nine out of every hundred Western 



OriXIONS OF THE WESTERN PEOPLE. 43 

men believe that the sooner the Indians are killed off the 
better, and they insist that it is a humane work to kill them 
off whenever and wherever found. How much the pre- 
vailing* sentiment, and its logical results displayed in the 
actions of Western people and traders and miners, have 
had to do with our present Indian difficulties, I leave 
others to judge. When I shall have passed through the 
Indian country, I may have more decided convictions on 
the subject than now. 

But for the white tents which dot the bluffs near this 
place, the crowd of ofiQcers that throng the streets, and the 
hurried moving of military stores, with an occasional 
hearty curse you hear hurled at the Indian, no one here 
would suppose that there were any troubles on the Plains. 
The trains and coaches run regularly. Passengers come 
through on their way East, and laugh when interrogated 
as to the danger of Indians. They had not heard or 
thought of them, is the usual reply. Crowds go west- 
ward dail}^, and all things seem to be considered but the 
danger of assault or capture b}^ the Indians. All are well 
armed, and the men going westward, especially those who 
have been there, all consider themselves able to whip any 
number of Indians single-handed if they should cross their 
path. Families, embracing mothers and daughters, start 
out by every train, and the Far-Western ladies make the 
trip unattended without any fear as to their safety. Gen- 
eral Potter will leave his head-quarters at Fort Sedgwick 
(Julesburg), with ten companies of troops, to protect the 
stage route and the construction of the railroads, and no 
apprehensions are felt about the interruption of travel on 
the Plains. True, a roving band of Indians may attack a 
small party at any time, but it is evident that no consider- 
able body of hostile Indians can endanger the overland 
route for an}^ length of time. Yesterday a band of them 



44 THE '^FIRE-WAGONSy 

struck one of the stage-stations between Julesburg and 
Denver, capturing the horses and burning the station, but 
did not attempt to kill or capture any of the men. They 
are just now in search of horses, and will be likely to 
trouble the overland stations — much more likely to raid 
upon the stations than upon the stages, for they have no 
love for uncertain warfare, and they can never calculate 
the armed force in a stage until they draw its fire. They 
have met with several severe defeats by attacking stages, 
and they call them the ''fire-wagons." 



LETTER V. 

Starting from Omaha for the Phiiiis. — The Union Pacific Kailroad. 
—The Flood in the Platte Valley.— The Phitte Kiver.— Scarcity 
of Shrubbery and Trees. — The Adobe Shanties. — Antelopes and 
ButJaloes. — The Indian War again. — It grows more serious. — 
General Hancock's Expedition South. — His Enemy raids North. 
— The Cost of Killing Indians. — The Military embarrassed by 
the Civil Authorities. — Transfer of the Indians to the War De- 
partment a Necessity. — Off again Westward. 

North Platte, May 8, 1867. 

I LEFT Omaha last evening at six o'clock, by the Union 
Pacific Railroad, and must confess that I did not leave re- 
gretfully. There are few persons, not actually bound there 
by the tide of business that is sweeping in and about the 
place, who will spend any time needlessly in what the 
Omahaians regard as the coming city of the West. They 
boast greatly of the rare variety of climate — having had 
snow-storms, thunder-storms, hurricanes, impassable mud, 
choking dust, earthquakes, floods, hard freezes, and burn- 
ing suns all in the space of three weeks. I must concede 
all they claim in the way of variety, but I found most of them 
differed with me when I told them that nothing but a first- 
class earthquake or a general fire to batter or burn down 
these miserable buildings will ever make Omaha what I 
doubt not it must yet be — a substantial, thrifty, grooving 
town. 

The Union Pacific Railroad is now completed to this 
point, a distance of two hundred and ninety-five miles, and 

5* ( 45 ) 



46 THE PLATTE RIVER. 

the trains run with comparative regularity. It is a good 
Western road, — tenfold better than the Iowa part of the 
Chicago and Northwestern, — and makes the two hundred 
and ninety-five miles in fifteen hours. It suffered consider- 
ably by the late flood, but is now completely repaired. 
The inundation of the Platte Yalley must have been fear- 
ful. I saw as much as half a mile of railroad-track, the 
ties and rails still connected, swept away from the bed, 
and strong, new rails bent nearly double by the violence of 
the water. But such floods are not frequent, and I pre- 
sume that it is safe to calculate that this road will not be 
more subject to interruption by floods than are first-class 
Eastern roads. After passing out through Nebraska for a 
few miles, the evidence of progress is not marked. There 
are but few settlers on the line of the road, and after we 
enter what is called the Platte Plains, about Fort Kearney, 
there seems to be little that can ever invite the husband- 
man. The valley, or vast plain, is bounded on every side 
by vast bluffs, ranging from twenty to thirty miles apart, 
and the bluffs seem to be terribly sterile and repulsive. The 
Platte River rolls lazily along south of the railroad, hug- 
ging the southern bluffs at times, and again striking out 
near the centre of the valley ; but it tires the eye to look at 
it and its surroundings. It is a murky, shallow, treacher- 
ous stream, with shifting sands for its bed, and naked 
banks skirting it all the way. I have looked for miles 
along its course without seeing so much as a shrub, much 
less a tree; but at times, when it nears the bluffs, it puts 
out along its banks a stunted, miserable growth of cotton- 
wood. I have not seen a tree off the stream in the great 
Platte Yalley thus far, and not one even on the stream that 
would make a good rail or a telegraph-pole. The valley is 
a miserable waste, and I fear ever must be. I have not 
found a single stream in it but the Platte River — the whole 



I 



THE INDIAN WAR AGAIN. 47 

plain thus far, north of the river, not furnishing a single 
tributary. In addition to this, there are but few rains 
during the summer, and no possible means of irrigation. 
The grass is now covered with a white coat of alkali, and 
all the water, even from the wells, is strongly impregnated 
with it. The ox-trains going west by this route keep south 
of the Platte, between the river and the bluffs, and I learn 
that there is better grass there, and an occasional stream 
running to the river. There is not a habitation on the 
route for nearly two hundred miles but such as are neces- 
sary to accommodate the railroad and travel. Here and 
there are miserable adobe shanties, with signs out, offering 
whisky and other luxuries to the weary sojourner; but I 
have not seen so much as the sign of a farm, or a fold, or 
even a patch, for fully one hundred miles. The antelopes 
would come up close to the train and gaze at it with bound- 
less curiosity, until some ambitious sport would send a 
bullet after them. They would look for a moment at the 
dust raised by the bullet, and then fly off with bewitching 
grace. The buffalo grazed quietly eight miles north of us 
at one place on the Plains, and the prairie-dog and owl oc- 
casionally peeped out at us as we passed along. 

We are beginning to realize that there is something of 
an Indian war going on. We are advised here that a band 
of Cheyennes (pronounced Shi-en') had made a raid on 
our stage line sixty miles in advance of us, captured all 
the hor.es at the American Ranch, and burned the Fair- 
view Station beyond. I had an inkling of it from General 
Augur yesterday, before I left Omaha, but his advices were 
indefinite, and he did not full}^ credit them. He therefore 
withheld the information from the public press, but com- 
municated it to me just as he had received it, inasmuch as 
I was about to travel the route. He had been advised of 
a probable raid on the overland line, between Julesburg 



48 GENERAL HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION SOUTH. 

and Denver, by Spotted Tail and Swift Bear, two chiefs of 
the Ogalallas and Brules, who have been temporarily quar- 
tered on the Republican Fork by General Sully. About 
fifteen hundred from those tribes are, for the present, al- 
lowed to occup}^ the region from the Smoky Hill to the 
Platte, where there are good hunting grounds. They have 
interpreters and scouts with them, employed by General 
Augur, and are under pledge to keep the peace themselves, 
and not to allow hostile tribes to move across their grounds 
without sending messages to the nearest military post. A 
few days ago Spotted Tail sent a messenger to General 
Augur with word that two hundred and fifty lodges of 
Cheyennes and sixty lodges of Sioux, all hostile, had 
moved up to the Republican Fork from the Smoky Hill, 
and that they were offering every inducement to get Spotted 
Tail's young warriors to join them in a war upon the 
whites. He was offered one hundred horses if he would join 
the hostile tribes. He refused, and asked to be removed 
from that region, with his lodges, to some place Avhere the 
hostile tribes would not harass his people and seduce his 
young warriors from him. The lodges of the Indians aver- 
age about five persons to each, so that there are about fifteen 
hundred hostile Indians on the Republican Fork, within 
sixty miles of the Union Pacific Railroad, and near enough 
to both stage and railroad lines to raid upon either or both. 
With these hostile tribes are their families, so that, all told, 
there are not over three hundred and fifty warriors ; but that 
number, near enough to strike a great thoroughfare any 
place in a stretch of one hundred miles, may prove a seri- 
ous impediment to travel. These are represented by 
Spotted Tail to be the same Indians that General Hancock 
met in the Smoky Hill region, and w^hich General Custer 
was supposed to be driving far south. One thing is cer- 
tain, — that General Custer has found no hostile Indians 



THE COST OF KILLING IN D LANS. 49 

south of Smok}^ Hill as far as he has been heard from, and 
it is equally certain that a hostile party turns up several 
hundred miles in his rear, that did not cross the Platte 
from the north. So much for the results of the expedition 
south. The troops sweep down toward the Arkansas, 
while the Indians make the plains resound with their war- 
whoop upon the Republican, and the belligerents are each 
pursuing their hostile purposes at the unusual range of 
three hundred miles. In this we have but a foretaste of 
our offensive Indian campaigns. It will be no fault of the 
commanders that these expeditions, generally regarded 
East as offensive movements, will prove ludicrous fail- 
ures. They are doing the best they can. They are obey- 
ing orders, and will do much good in their way ; but the 
practical results will not be palpable to the masses of the 
people Avho are patiently waiting for General Hancock or 
General Augur or General Terry to carve the epitaph of 
the last Red Man with his sword. It has been ascer- 
tained by calculation that every Indian warrior of the 
Plains killed by the military has cost the government about 
$115,000. Rather expensive first-class funerals, it must be 
confessed, to lavish on barbarians ; but I do not look for 
the Indian funeral market to decline materially in price 
during any of the present campaigns. 

The defeat of the bill, proposed recently in Congress, to 
transfer the Indian Bureau to the War Department, was a 
gigantic mistake, and it will cost the government hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars, worse than wasted, this 
summer. General Augur commands a large Indian de- 
partment, controls its armies, projects its campaigns, and 
fights its battles ; but he can do nothing more. Some In- 
dian agent, but too often an unscrupulous speculator or a 
downright thief, is supreme in all matters but actual hos- 
tilities. The Ogalallas and Brules, now temporarily on 



50 TRANSFER TO THE WAR DEPARTMENT. 

the Republican, ask to be transferred from the perils and 
the influence of the hostile Cheyennes and Sioux, who have 
broken into their hunting grounds. One reason given by 
the friendly chiefs is that their young warriors cannot be 
controlled when appealed to and offered tempting bribes 
to join in hostilities. The young brave has but one hope 
of distinction. He can become great only by warfare. He 
can be honored only by wearing the rude wreath of vic- 
tory known to the bar))arian ; and his dusky bride or sweet- 
heart ever prompts him to deeds of blood. With good 
reason, therefore, do Spotted Tail and Swift Bear, two vet- 
eran and faithful chiefs, advise that their followers be re- 
moved from the baleful influences of the hostile tribes. 
But who is to remove them? General Augur dare not, 
and there is no Indian agent nearer than Fort Laramie 
who has any power over the question. The Pawnees have 
their agent here, but his jurisdiction ends with the Paw- 
nees. When Indians are to be removed, they must be fed ; 
and red tape demands, even in the midst of war, that they 
eat none but rations properly issued and labeled by the 
Indian Department. If the whole management of Indian 
affairs had been transferred to the War Department, we 
should have started in this war with half the battle gained, 
by at once sweeping from position the swarms of civil 
agents Avho are the authors of so much of our Indian 
troubles, and our military commanders would now be em- 
powered to treat, transfer, feed, or fight them, as circum- 
stances might require. It is just possible that, at the rate 
the government has been learning the management of In- 
dians, in the course of forty years . or so we may attain 
something approaching common sense in this business, and 
it is about equally probable that by that time there will be 
no Indians left to experiment on in a sensible way. If 
the government does not solve this problem at an early 



OFF AGAIN WESTWARD. 51 

day, the settlers and miners will solve it themselves, and 
some new Cooper may write '' The Last of the Chey- 
ennes," or "The Last of the Sioux," with the truth of its 
bloody history making all Indian romance pale before it. 
How the settlers and miners will end Indian depredations, 
the Chivington massacre at Sand Creek correctly fore- 
shadows. Colonel Chivington's command w^as composed 
of Colorado volunteers — men Avho had felt or seen the 
cruel savagery of the Red Man in resenting his real or 
imaginary wrongs ; and, although a dispassionate examina- 
tion of the whole case must force the conviction that White 
Antelope and his followers were peaceable, with perhaps 
rare exceptions, he and his whole band, squaws and pa- 
pooses, were put to death — not one received as a prisoner ; 
and yet nine out of ten of the AVestern people either com- 
mend or excuse the act. They feel that the Indian is in 
their way; that they cannot fraternize; that he will not 
w^ork, and must rob, and to rob must often kill ; and they 
look hopefully to the day when he shall have offered the 
last of his race as a sacrifice to the progress of civilization. 
But the stage is loaded. We have had a dinner of boiled 
antelope and vegetables — all excellent but the water, — and 
start in a few minutes for Denver, distant tw^o hundred and 
ninety miles, and will have an opportunity of crossing the 
path of the hostile Indians who struck the stations sixty 
miles w^est. We will have three stages, all well filled and 
passengers w^ell armed, and an attack is not probable unless 
a pow^erful party of warriors should happen to strike us. 
They want horses more than scalps or trunks and bonnets, 
and they may attack twenty stations and allow the stage to 
pass safely. The people here, passengers and proprietors, 
seem to take no account of the Indians beyond a careful 
examination of their repeating rifles; and if one stage-load 
should be murdered to-day, another w^ould start out to- 



52 THE MOVEiMENT TOWARD THE SETTING SUN. 

morrow, just as usual. Passengers would not wait merely 
because half a dozen persons had been butchered, and the 
proprietors would not think of stopping their line for even 
a day while there were horses enough to take the coach 
through. The movement toward the setting sun is ac- 
cepted as inevitable, and, although many may find name- 
less and forgotten graves, still the restless, swelling, ir- 
resistible tide will move on, until the savage lives only in 
history, and his once favorite hunting grounds shall be 
known only as the beautiful and bountiful fields of the 
mighty West. 



LETTER yi. 

From North Platte to Denver. — The Barrenness of the Platte 
Valley. — The "Lone Tree" and "Plum Creek" not visible. — 
Sources of the Platte Kiver. — First Experiment in Overland 
Staging. — The First Indian Alarm. — Troops protecting a 
Whisky-Mill. — Alarm of the Station-Men. — A Cowardly Driver 
induced to change his Strategy. — A Canadian Frenchman uses 
a Kevolver as a Persuader. — The First "Square Meal" on the 
Plains. — Fort Sedgwick. — Plenty of Troops, but ineffective. — 
Indians drive in the Cavalry. — The Stage goes on and passes 
in Safety. — Quicksand and Sand Gnats. — A Burnt Station. — 
Supper with "Old Wicked." — The Dinner at Living Spring. — 
Arrival at Denver. 

Denver, Colorado, May 11, 18G7. 
We reached the city last night about nine o'clock, just 
three days and three hours from Omaha. It is six hun- 
dred miles, of which two hundred and ninety-five is by 
rail, — the rest of the journey by coach. When the roads 
are good, the trip is made in two and a half days; but the 
railroad is still a little shaky from the late floods, and be- 
tween Indian depredations, floods, and quicksands, the 
trip is generally extended twenty hours over time. From 
Omaha, on the Missouri Eiver, to the North Platte, the 
country is beautiful prairie ; but after leaving the river it 
soon becomes dry, rains seldom fall, dews grow lighter 
and more rare, until they finally disappear altogether, about 
Fort Kearney, and thence westward there is but one con- 
tinued plain, parched, whitened with alkali, without shrub- 
bery or trees, almost entirely without small streams, and 

( 53 ) 



54 ''LONE TREE'' AND 'TLUM CREEK:' 

altogether inhospitable, bleak, and desolate. From Fort 
Kearney west to near this place, a distance of four hun- 
dred miles, I did not see a single acre in cultivation, — not 
a single fence, garden, patch, field, or anything that indi- 
cated thrift or productiveness. The river Platte rolls its 
turbid vs^aters through the Platte Yalley, and makes no 
sign of life along its borders. It is wide, shallow, muddy, 
broken by innumerable islands, treacherous, and appa- 
rently useless. It does not even skirt its own banks with 
shrubs or timber. All along its banks is the same weary 
waste that the plains present for miles on either side of it. 
Occasionally it presents a petty growth of cottonwood for 
a few miles, but they are mere apologies for trees, and 
make the general view, if possible, more cheerless by their 
deformed and stinted growth. From Kearney west I did 
not notice a tree any place on the route, nor so much as 
even a temporary tributary to the Platte River. One 
station on the railroad is called "Lone Tree" station. I 
looked carefully for the tree, and would have welcomed 
such an evidence of life in that unbroken waste, but I 
found no sign of it. Upon inquiry, I was informed that 
the tree existed only in tradition. It is positively asserted 
that there once was a tree there, a brave but rather un- 
sightly cedar, that had successfully resisted the unwhole- 
some waters and burning suns of the plain, but it fell be- 
fore the march of civilization. Every traveler plucked a 
twig from its branches, until the branches were gone, and 
then the trunk was chipped away, as relics of the Lone 
Tree of the Platte plain. Equally delusive was the title 
of another railroad station called "Plum Creek." At last, 
I supposed, we would find a tributary to the Platte — at 
least a little rivulet winding through the sands to nourish 
some vegetation along its path. But Plum Creek station 
had everything but the creek. It had not even the bed or 



SOURCES OF THE PLATTE RIVER. 55 

semblance of a stream of water. It seems that a little 
stream empties into the Platte on the south side, some ten 
miles from the station, and the railroad company did the 
best it could, in the absence of all babbling brooks, by 
honoring the name of one ten miles away to grace their 
titles in the railroad guide. So the country continues until 
the Platte divides, and in the peninsula is located Platte 
City, better known as North Platte. The North Fork is 
bridged for the railroad, and at the end of the bridge the 
railroad round-house and repair-shops have made a West- 
ern city. It consists of one fair hotel, several one-story 
boarding-houses for operatives, several warehouses, as 
many stores, and about forty "whisky-mills," or small 
groceries, where whisky, tobacco, and portable eatables 
are sold at fabulous prices. 

The North Fork of the Platte has its course consider- 
ably north of west of Fort Laramie, nearly three hundred 
miles distant from the junction, and from Laramie it 
sweeps up northward to the Red Buttes, when it wheels 
around south again, and finally heads in North Park, 
Colorado. The South Platte has a southwestern course 
from the junction to this cit}^, and from here its course 
is to the South Park, where it heads. Both forks start in 
the Rocky Range, and not fifty miles apart, but they sepa- 
rate as much as six hundred miles in their course to reach 
the junction at Platte City. The North Fork has many 
tributaries as it nears the mountains, but the South Fork 
continues for three hundred miles without any important 
tributaries, and its width and general appearance are just 
the same during all that distance, while the country is but 
a continuation of the dry alkali plain we had traversed by 
rail east of the junction. 

We started from Platte City about two p.m. on Wednes- 
da}^ The beginning of Western staging was anything 



56 FIR^T EXPERIMENT IN OVERLAND STAGING. 

but soothing to our expectations. A large baggage-wagon, 
without springs, containing a box guiltless of any sort of 
seats, was driven up to the door, and half a ton of mail- 
bags and our baggage first thrown in. These filled the 
bed more than full, and upon the baggage and mail- 
bags we were to ride for eight miles, including the fording 
of the river, before we could get to the coaches. It would 
have been in vain to protest against compelling passengers, 
and especially ladies, to travel in that way. We had paid 
our fare, we had to go, and to have complained Avould 
have provoked perhaps still harsher treatment. The ladies, 
three in number, were piled upon the trunks, and the gen- 
tlemen hung on and around the wagon as best they could. 
Between keeping themselves and the ladies from falling 
off, as the team went at a rapid gait over a rough road, 
often invisible amid the clouds of dust that swept over us, 
they had more on hands than men should bargain for. 
But we got over the river, and finally landed at the coach- 
station in tolerable order, considering all things. In a 
short time a regular Concord coach was driven up, with 
an elegant four-horse team, and one ton of mails and bag- 
gage and nine passengers were crowded in and on it 
ready for the plains. Two of the passengers took outside 
seats, or we should have had a sorry time of it. The 
coaches here are fully a foot shorter in the bed than our 
old Eastern coaches, and when nine persons are in one of 
them, they are so completely wedged together that it is next 
to impossible to change position. But, by dividing with 
the driver and the stage-top, we got fixed rather comfort- 
ably, the driver cracked his whip, and off we started for 
what is at least a thirty-six hours' continuous joiu'ney 
over the Platte Y alley. 

The first station we reached was about ten miles from 
our starting-place. The stations along the route vary from 



THE FIRST INDIAN ALARM. 5*7 

eight to fourteen miles, and are distinguished as " swing" 
and *' home" stations. The swing stations furnish a change 
of horses only ; while the home stations furnish new teams 
and " square meals" to the passenger. As the Indians had 
cleaned out one station on the route but a few nights 
before, I need not say that the Indian question became one 
of especial interest to all the passengers. I walked into 
the stable while the change of horses was being made, 
and inquired of the man in charge whether he had any 
information of Indian movements. I found him greatly 
excited on the subject, and apprehensive of an attack any 
hour. He said that there were not less than seventy-five 
hundred hostile Sioux and Cheyennes just south of the 
bluffs, — not more than from ten to fifteen miles distant, — 
or between that and the Republican River, and that they 
would certainly sweep the stage-line with scalping-knife 
and torch, as they did in the winter of 1865. I got but 
little comfort from him, and I kept his information to my- 
self. He was evidently frightened out of all judgment on 
the subject ; and, while his fears were not entirely ground- 
less, I was satisfied that there was no large force of sav- 
ages so near. But he doubtless felt as I did — that fifty 
would settle the business with a station or a stage-coach 
just as effectually as five thousand. At the second station 
I made the same inquiry, and found the station-keepers — 
usually from two to four men — greatly alarmed, but much 
more rational than the others. One of them told me that 
he had ridden out over the hills near at hand and seen 
two Indians quite distinctly. He supposed them to be 
spies,. looking out for the best method and time to attack 
the station. The driver evidently believed the report of 
the station-keeper, and considered an attack upon the coach 
as probable. He said that he would do the best he could 
for himself in case of an attack — that he had a good knife 



58 ^ REVOLVER AS A PERSUADER. 

and a good leader, and they would be smart if they caught 
him. I asked him whether he would desert the stage and 
passengers in that manner ; to which he replied that he 
would take care of himself. I told him I thought that no 
man would get away with the leader should the Indians 
attack us. " Why not?" was his quick and somewhat ex- 
cited response. " Because," said I, " we shall watch that 
our leader donH get away." We had a fearless Canadian 
Frenchman on the outside, who has spent many years in 
the Indian country. I handed him a good revolver ; and, 
although no explanations passed, there were at least three 
men, including the driver, who understood that the lead- 
horse would not leave the team in case of trouble. At the 
next station we found a squad of soldiers, protecting and 
patronizing a whisky-mill, and apparently proving them- 
selves a most effective force in the last part. They had no 
reports of Indians, and pronounced the route to be clear. 
When we reached the next station, the men were busy 
tunneling from the stable far enough off to be safe in case 
of fire, and they were panic-stricken about the expected 
Indian raid. They were indeed to be pitied, for they are 
entirely without protection, — most of them not even armed, 
— and, as the Indians want horses badly, they are more ex- 
posed than any other class of people. On the entire route 
I found but three stations where there were any arms. 
They say that they are not furnished with arms, that they 
cannot afford to buy them ; and that even if they were 
armed they could not defend themselves in stables, where 
the Indian has but to apply the torch to the hay roof and 
burn them out. About ten o'clock p.m. we reached the 
first "home-station," known as Alkali Station, and we 
were there to try our first " square meal." The station- 
house is, like all others on the route, one story high, and 
covered with sod. The sod is cut in the lowlands about 



THE FIRST '^SQUARE MEAL:' 59 

six inches thick, and probably eighteen inches square. 
These are piled upon each other to the height of eight 
feet, wide rafters are thrown across, and another course of 
sod for a roof completes the building. All ranches, stables, 
and residences on the line are built in the same way. The 
lady of the house set to work at once to get supper, and, 
while it was being prepared, we were invited to be seated 
and make ourselves at home. Her shanty bore many evi- 
dences of neatness,. and looked as heartsome as such a 
hovel could be made. In a short time, supper was ready, 
and we were all most agreeably surprised by the repast 
spread for us. We had excellent warm rolls, canned to- 
matoes, peas, blackberries, peach-pie, fried ham, stewed 
veal, and fried potatoes, with tolerable butter and coffee 
and tea. It was, in fact, the best meal I had met with 
since leaving Chicago. We were all hungry as well as 
tired, and did ample justice to the supper. The price was 
one dollar and fifty cents, which w^e all paid most cheer- 
fully. We found the station-keeper and his wife both 
much concerned about the Indians, and they talked about 
closing out at an early day. 

The late supper, and the liberal patronage we all extended 
to it, made sound sleep rather difficult in a stage-coach. 
We had by this time become used to Indian reports ; and, 
as there was no place so safe as in the stage, we all got 
our shawls about us, looked well to the loading of our 
rifles, and to their position, so as to be of easy access in 
case they should be wanted, and devoted ourselves to rest. 
Most of the passengers dozed more or less ; but I could 
not sleep. My long legs placed me at a great disadvant- 
age, as they became so painful from the interruption of cir- 
culation by being squeezed together in one position all the 
time, that I could not rest. I looked anxiously for the 
stations, just to give me a few minutes to straighten myself 



60 INDIANS DRIVE IN THE CAVALRY. 

out and get up a little motion of the blood. The night 
passed without any event of interest, and soon after sun- 
rise we arrived at Julesburg — a little town of three build- 
ings, all rude frame shanties. At Fort Sedgwick there 
were over one thousand troops stationed ; but they were 
unfitted for any service that could giv^e protection to the 
route. The men were unmounted, and, beyond protecting 
themselves and their officers, they are of no possible use 
in the West. I called on the commanding officer of the 
fort, to ascertain whether he had any authentic informa- 
tion relative to Indian depredations on the route. Colonel 
Dodge (formerly Assistant Provost Marshal at Harris- 
burg) was in command ; but, as it was only eight o'clock, 
he had not yet made his toilet. In answer to an inquiry 
sent him by an officer, he answered that the Indians had 
broken the telegraph-line the day before, some fifteen miles 
west, but he considered it safe for the stage to proceed. I 
did not ask for an escort, — although by an official letter I 
bore I could have commanded it, — for the reason that the 
practical men on the route, the drivers and passengers 
who were familiar with both soldiers and Indians, j)re- 
ferred not to have an escort. A large escort cannot be 
given ; a small one would be useless under any circum- 
stances; and the Indians, I learn, don't care much for 
ordinary escorts, whether large or small. After breakfast 
we passed on until we came to the second station, at a 
ranch kept by ''Buffalo John," where we met the tele- 
graph operator and his escort, consisting of a squad of 
cavalry. He had been out repairing the line supposed to 
have been broken by the Indians, and reported that he had 
seen a large body of them, probably a hundred ; and the 
officer who commanded the squad added that he had seen 
fully a hundred, and had been fired upon and chased into 
the ranch. They said that these hostile demonstrations 



THE STAGE PASSES fy SAFETY. Gl 

had been made about two miles ahead on our road. I 
asked the officer whether he considered it safe for the 
stage to proceed. "All safe; they won't attack the stage," 
he answered. He deemed it unsafe for a body of armed 
and mounted troops to be there, but considered it safe for 
three ladies and six gentlemen to go over the route. I 
suggested that probably we had better detail a mixed 
guard of ladies and gentlemen from the stage to protect 
the troops ; but he walked off as if he really considered me 
insolent. 

With the cavalry skulking in and about the whisky-mill, 
we all decided to proceed, as the driver insisted that the 
soldiers were not to be believed, and that the telegraphic 
operator was never known to tell the truth. He probably 
put his point a little strong, but he certainly did not be- 
lieve the report, positive and circumstantial as it was, and 
so on we went. The driver was a cool, intelligent, de- 
termined man, an old resident of the Indian country, and 
he was very positive that we should proceed ; and as to an 
escort, he didn't want to have it about him. He suggested, 
however, that it was barely possible we might meet with 
Indians, and if so, he named the place where they would 
attack. At his request, four of us, with repeating rifles, 
took the top of the coach. I sat beside him on the driver's 
boot, and three others, with well-loaded rifles, lay on the 
baggage. About three miles west of the station, the road 
runs close to the river, in a low, narrow flat, and a series 
of broken bluffs come close to the road. The driver held his 
lines with perfect steadiness, but did not wholly conceal 
the apprehension he felt that, after all, there might be In- 
dians about. '' Watch well for their heads, front and rear, 
and don't let them get the first fire," was his advice; and 
we did watch well. Every rifle in and about the stage 
was cocked and pointed toward the bluffs, and fifty balls 



62 QUICKSAND AND SAND-GNATS. 

could have been fired without stopping to reload. The 
driver showed his appreciation of strategy by keeping as 
close to the river as possible, thus giving the bluffs a wide 
berth. There was scarcely a word spoken by any while 
passing the bluffs, a distance of a quarter of a mile ; and 
all breathed freely again when they receded behind us. 
" I knowed he was a d d liar," was the brief but ex- 
pressive remark of the driver as he whirled his long lash 
over his six gay horses and made his silken cracker 
rend out its sharp, keen music. About three o'clock 
we stopped at ''Riverside Ranch," and did justice to a 
good dinner. Here we came into the sandy region. 
For twenty-five miles the road is mostly over a bed of 
deep quicksand, and three miles an hour with a heavily- 
loaded coach is good time. It is a much greater impedi- 
ment than mud, and is, besides, very oppressive upon pas- 
sengers. The fine sand keeps a perpetual cloud about the 
coach, and penetrates the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, and 
clothes, and, impregnated as it is with alkali, it makes 
every one most uncomfortable. Nor do its torments stop 
with itself It has an ally of innumerable little sand- 
gnats, so small as to be hardly perceptible, and they get 
in the hair and under the clothing, and bite much worse 
than even Western mosquitoes. We bore all, however, 
with commendable fortitude and patience, and finally got 
out again on good road, only to find the ruins of the 
" American Station," burnt by the Indians but a few nights 
before. It was not by any means a pleasant reminder of 
the perils of the trip. But it is wonderful how people can 
become used to almost anything. Even the old woman's 
traditionary eels got used to skinning; and we had cer- 
tainly become used to Indian rumors. The ladies were 
not the least heroic of the party, and had their revolvers 
readv to aid in tlie common defense in case the war should 



SUPrER WITH '^OLD WICKED:' 63 

come to close quarters. From the gravest apprehensions 
felt by all at first, the Indian question became one fruitful 
of jokes, although there were some grim smiles at times 
as the loss of a scalp was made the theme of wit. At last 
we ceased to borrow trouble about the Indians, and as 
night drew her sable curtains about us, most of the party 
were ready for sleep. 

About half-past eleven we drove up before the ranch of 
" Old Wicked," one of the home stations of the route. We 
were due there for supper about six, but a heavy load and 
bad roads had detained us. No one wanted supper at 
that late hour, but Ave concluded that " Old Wicked " was 
entitled to a benefit, and seven of us answered to the call 
for supper. We had to wait for it to be cooked, and I was 
glad to have an hour with the proprietor. His name is 
Hoi ] en Godfrey, and he is the most noted Indian-fighter 
on the Plains. He was the only man on the Platte Plains 
who defended and saved his ranch in the raid of 1865. 
He and three others defended it against one hundred and 
sixty Indians for half a day, killed over a dozen of them, 
and finally compelled them to raise the siege. The Indians 
named him " Old Wicked," and by that name he has since 
been known. He has a sod fortification connected with 
his ranch, and defending it at all points, and he proposes to 
do his own fighting in his own Avay. He hopes to have a 
brush with them this summer ; but the general judgment 
of all along the line is that if an Indian raid is made, 
" Old Wicked " will not be honored with a call. He gave 
us a good supper; and I was so entertained by his modest 
but intelligent history of our Indian difficulties, that not 
until the driver's whip cracked after several calls of " all 
aboard " did I bid him good-by and get into the coach. I 
must tell more of him at another time. 

We had nothing of special interest after leaving " Old 



64 ARRIVAL AT DENVER. 

Wicked " until we came near " Living Spring " station, 
within forty-five miles of this city. One of the station- 
keepers informed us that he had seen ten Indians that da}^, 
evidently spies, who were planning the capture of the 
station and horses, and he said that he would remain no 
longer. We had become so used to frightened station-men 
and military reports that we did not even take the trouble 
to discuss the probable correctness of the story. Dinner 
was just ahead of us at " Living Spring " — the only spring 
I have heard of during a journe}^ of nearly six hundred 
miles ; and 1 was glad to find one oasis in this parched 
plain where fresh water gave life to vegetation. From 
thence to Denver the scenery is grand indeed. The Rocky 
Mountains are in full view, with their eternal snow-clad 
peaks, the prairie is broken by gentle undulations, habita- 
tions begin to show some of the signs of civilization, and 
here and there are irrigated gardens which are beginning 
to bloom with life and beauty. It was a grateful change 
from the flat, hot, monotonous valley of the Platte, and 
we were all more than rejoiced when, stiff and sore, we 
were landed at the Pacific Hotel in Denver. Of Denver 
and Colorado I will write hereafter. I find the road 
through the mountains almost impassable, and while it is 
improving I will spend a week in the mining regions of 
Colorado. I go to Central City, Idaho, and Empire, on 
Monday and Tuesday. 



LETTER YII. 

Efforts to understand the Indian Question. — The Western De- 
mand for Chivington or Conner. — Western Contempt for the 
Regular Army. — Why Regulars do not fight Indians success- 
fully. — Advantages of the Indians in a Summer Campaign-. — 
The Monuments of Indian Warfare. — The Platte Valley Raid 
of 1865. — Horrible Cruelties of the Savages. — Hollen Godfrey, 
or "Old Wicked." — His Defense of his Ranch. — A Supper with 
him, and his Story of his Fight, — His Solution of the Indian 
Problem. — He regards Indians as Peaceable when they are Dead. 
— How Indians conduct Campaigns. — Their Signals and Spies. 
— There must be Ppace. — It will be the Peace of Death to the 
Indian. — The Harney and Chivington Wars. 

Denver, Colorado, May 13, 1867. 
Ever since I reached the Missouri, at Omaha, I have 
been laboring most industriously to get something like a 
correct understanding of the causes, progress, and probable 
results of the present Indian war. It would seem natural 
that the officer commanding a department should be best 
informed, and two days with General Augur, who kindly 
allowed me access to his maps, data of the various tribes, 
reports of the Indian Commission and of scouts, gave me, 
as I supposed, a reasonably accurate idea of the condition 
of affairs. After leaving Omaha, I made it a point to 
gather all the information I could from every available 
source, without regard to the prejudices which might par- 
tially or wholly neutralize the truth. Ranchmen, drivers, 
station-keepers, train-men, and freighters have, after all, 
the best practical ideas of Indians, and it is remarkable 

7 (65) 



66 CONTEMPT FOR THE REGULAR ARMY. 

how universal is their contempt for military campaigns. 
"■ Give us Chivington or Conner" is the answer to all ques- 
tions as to how peace may be attained ; and I have not 
found one resident or habitual traveler of the plains who 
does not demand extermination. Their testimony is fear- 
fully concurrent that there can be no peace while the gov- 
ernment negotiates with the Indians and treats prisoners 
in accordance with the usage of civilized warfare. Next 
to the Indians, the residents and sojourners of the Platte 
Yalley west of the railroad have the greatest contempt for 
soldiers of the regular army. They say that such troops 
fear the Indians, and will not fight them. They have no 
private wrongs to avenge. They have had no friends 
butchered, no wives or children scalped or tortured, and 
they know that they are exposed to all the atrocities prac- 
ticed by the Indians, while they are -compelled to fight 
them as if they were humane and chivalrous. Is it not 
natural that soldiers of the regular army, who fight me- 
chanical]}^, should be inefficient in a campaign against In- 
dians? However extravagant may be the views of the 
Platte Yalley residents as to the folly of regular military 
campaigns, it must be confessed that their logic is more 
easy to overrule than to answer. No one here doubts 
that Generals Augur and Hancock are. doing, and will do, 
all that is in their power under their orders ; but the con- 
viction is just as universal that they cannot even protect 
the great thoroughfares to the West, much less bring the 
savages to peace, by military success. They might pro- 
tect the two great routes across the continent if they were 
instructed to do nothing else ; but when they are directed 
to divide their forces, and make offensive movements north 
and south of the Platte, they must fail to protect the routes 
behind them, and also fail to gain any decided success in 
the field. Every day I have spent in the Indian country 



WVIY REGULARS ARE NOT SUCCESSFUL. Gt 

has but confirmed the opinion I expressed in my first let- 
ter from Omaha — that there will not be a decisive battle 
fought this season by either General Augur or General 
Hancock, and that the so-called Indian war will be but a 
war^ on the side of the Indians, by fleet bands of warriors 
against weak posts and isolated commands ; and I do not 
hesitate to add that there will be ten or, more likely, 
twenty whites butchered for every Indian killed by the 
troops. 

Do not understand me as intending to reflect upon the 
capacity or efforts of our military commanders. They can- 
not do impossible things ; and I assure 5^our readers that 
what is expected of them generally in the East, and I pre- 
sume by the government, is as impossible, under existing 
circumstances, as w^ould be a campaign against the deni- 
zens of the moon. It is conceded that there are some hun- 
dreds, and probably over a thousand, hostile Indians on the 
Kcpublican Fork.. It is the central line between the 
Smoky Hill and the Platte routes, and an excellent base to 
operate in every direction against the lines of travel and 
against the settlers. They can strike the Platte route for 
several hundred miles in one day's ride, and the Smoky 
Hill is equally accessible. Of their movements no one 
can be advised. They will burn a station on Smoky Hill 
one day, and the next strike the Platte. Within the last 
week they have made two raids on the Platte, and two or 
more on the Smoky Hill. The country they occupy is 
held solel}^ by hostile tribes. Spotted Tail and Swift Bear, 
with their followers, crossed the Platte northward on Fri- 
day, a few miles below Julesburg, so that the Republican 
region is now entirely in possession of the hostile Chey- 
ennes and Sioux. Spotted Tail and his followers were 
located there but a month ago by General Sully, but the 
incursion of the hostile tribes compelled him to leave, as 



68 nORRIBLE CRUELTIES OF THE SAVAGES. 

he reports, or allow half his young warriors to be seduced 
into war. He has, therefore, left for the north, and not 
entirely pleased because the government agents or com- 
manders would not allow his young warriors to fight the 
Pawnees a little occasionally, "for fun." I find that the 
residents all along the route, as well as the people of Den- 
ver, have no faith whatever in Spotted Tail, and they pre- 
dict he will be on the war-path, or at least part of his tribe 
with his consent, before another month. It is not ques- 
tioned that in his lodg-es are quite a number who were 
concerned in the Fort Phil. Kearney massacre; and yet no 
effort has been made to have them surrendered to justice, 
lest it might force all of them into war. I must agree 
with the Western people, so far, at least, as to demand the 
summary and relentless punishment of all Indians who 
have countenanced or participated in the butchery of cap- 
tives; and, if it should make a thousand more warriors for 
a time, hundreds of lives would be saved in the end. 

The evidences of the necessity of a change in our sys- 
tem of warfare against Indians are not confined to the 
opinions and prejudices of the settlers. I saw for three 
hundred miles along the route, from North Platte to Den- 
ver, the mute but terribly eloquent monuments of savage 
warfare. But a little more than two years ago, in Janu- 
ary, 1865, the Indians raided the entire Platte line, from 
Denver almost to Atchison, and spared neither age, sex, 
nor condition. There were not three ranches between this 
and North Platte that escaped — indeed, I know of but one. 
A portion of the ranchmen and station-keepers escaped, l)ut 
not one man who fell into the hands of the savages lived to 
tell the story of his capture. His scalp graced the belt of 
some brave, and was carried home to win the favor of some 
dusky daughter of the forest. Every ranch and station be- 
tween this and Julcsburg was captured and burned, with a 



IIOLLEN GODFREY. 69 

single exception ; the men, women, and children who did not 
escape were inhumanly butchered, and nothing was left to 
show that the country had ever been inhabited but the 
charred walls of the mud hovels. At Julesburg they burned 
the station and warehouse, within range of the guns of 
Fort Sedgwick, in open day, and not a gun was fired, nor an 
effort made to arrest the appalling atrocities which traced 
their line of march. How much the garrison of the fort 
could have effected, had they tried, I do not pretend to say; 
but that they did not try, lest they might provoke an at- 
tack by largely superior numbers on the fort, is the truth 
of history. In sublime contrast with the action of the 
military was the heroism of several ranchmen some fifty 
miles east of Julesburg. The Indians had passed all the 
military on the route without losing a man, and had left 
no habitation or resident behind them except the troops, 
until they encircled the ranch of Hollen Godfrey, a native 
of Western New York, but an old resident of the Indian 
country. I supped with him a few nights ago, and had 
his story from himself. He gave it with a degree of mod- 
esty and candor that stripped the popular history of the 
affair of some of its romance; but that he gave it truthfully 
there could be no doubt. He is an intelligent, keen-eyed 
and brawny-armed man of over fifty, and makes no pre- 
tensions to the heroic; but he does pretend to protect his 
little store of whisky, tobacco, canned fruits, and notions, 
and his wife and children ; and, more than that, he does it. 
He has a sod fortification running along the south and 
w^est sides of his ranch, and extending out some six feet 
front^and rear, so as to protect two sides of the building 
and command the other two. His fort is but a sod wall, 
six feet high, with loop-holes, but it is an infinitely better 
fortification than the scientific officers of Fort Sedgwick 
have to protect that post. One hundred and sixty warriors 



to DEFENSE OF GODFREY RANCH. 

attacked the Godfrey Ranch, but, as it was defended, they 
exhausted Indian strategy to reduce it. There were but 
four men and two women in the ranch, but they had sev- 
eral guns each, and plenty of ammunition. The Indians 
first formed a circle about the ranch, at a distance of four 
hundred yards, and endeavored to draw Godfrey's fire, so 
as to get his range ; but he never pulled a trigger until he 
had an Indian within two hundred yards. " My favorite 
double-barrel ain't sure at over two hundred yards," he in- 
formed me, " and I had no ammunition to waste." Judging 
that they could not accomplish anything without a direct 
attack, they selected thirty of their fleetest riders, and 
charged to within thirty yards of the ranch, in single file, 
each one firing, and wheeling at the nearest point. They 
made several such charges, each time selecting different 
loop-holes for their fire ; but they harmed no one, and one 
or more of the charging thirty fell in each attack. Finally 
they abandoned the direct attack, and fired the grass at 
various points, hoping to set the ranch on fire. At one 
point they had forced the fire close to the stable; but 
Godfrey could reach the endangered corner under cover, 
to extinguish the fire. Sixty balls struck the corner of the 
stable where he was Avorking; but he managed to protect 
himself, and escaped unharmed. The siege was maintained, 
with occasional charges, until night, when they were glad 
to abandon the ranch and leave their dead behind them. 
Wherever a dead Indian la}^, Godfrey kept special watch, 
knowing that they would make every effort to get their 
dead off the field, and shot several who attempted to re- 
move their fallen comrades, until they finalh^ surrendered 
their dead braves as trophies for the victor. They gave 
Godfrey the euphonious sobriquet of "Old Wicked," and 
since then he is known only by that name. Ilis ranch is 
called " Fort Wicked," and his actuMl name of Hollen God- 



3f ASS ACRES BY THE INDIANS. tl 

frey is almost forgotten. He is now expecting another 
raid, as do all ranchmen on the line, and he is the only 
man I have found whose face seems to brighten as he 
speaks of the probability of " another brush" with them, 
as he calls it. I made a careful examination of his armory. 
It contains eighteen rifles, from the old hunter's to the most 
improved Spencer and Sharpe. All are loaded, and ready 
for the combat at a moment's warning. When we arrived 
it was nearly midnight, and the old man was on guard him- 
self, in front of his ranch, armed with a Spencer rifle. 
Night or day his ranch is never without a sentinel, and 
surprise is impossible. The general belief of the ranch- 
men is, that when the Indians do come, they Avill not mo- 
lest ''Old Wicked." At the American Ranch, two miles 
east of Godfrey's, five men, one woman, and a child were 
residing, who fought the Indians until they had killed 
eleven ; but they were finally overpowered, the five men 
were scalped, and the woman was carried off to suffer worse 
than a thousand deaths from Indian violence and torture. 
At the AVisconsin Ranch, the next on the line east, two 
men defended it successfully until night, killing half a 
score of their savage assailants ; but their ammunition was 
nearly exhausted, and they escaped to the river under cover 
of darkness, and passed down safely on the ice. These 
three ranches are famed in the Platte Valley as the only 
places where Indian assaults were made bloody victories 
or disastrous defeats in the winter of 1865. From the 
Wisconsin Ranch east, clear down below Fort Kearney, 
there was not a living man or woman left, excepting the 
few W'ho made miraculous escapes by flight. The stage 
did not run through for six weeks ; but the tide of emigra- 
tion set in as usual in the spring, and new ranchmen and 
station-men occupied the line, rebuilt their sod hovels and 
stables, gave the ghastly, mutilated dead decent sepulture, 



72 J^OW INDIANS CONDUCT CAMPAIGNS. 

and from that time until now have lived in comparative 
safety. 

At present the signs of an early and fearful outbreak on 
this line are unmistakable, unless General Hancock can 
dislodge the hostile tribes from the Republican River. 
That they occupy the country from the Republican north 
to the Platte Yalley is evident to all. They can see every 
train, and every military movement in the valle}^, without 
exposing themselves even to discovery. The unbroken 
range of bluffs which skirt the valley on the south com- 
mand a complete view of the entire Platte region. Their 
spies occupy the bluffs constantly, and, as they have good 
field-glasses, which they purchase from the traders, they 
can distinguish every movement for twenty miles. It 
seems impossible to Eastern readers that they can so 
readily ascertain every movement; but when it is con- 
sidered that a train can be seen distinctly on the plain ten 
miles distant with the naked eye, it needs no argument to 
prove that the Indians, with good glasses, know every 
military movement as soon as it is commenced. During 
all of last week they were signaling from the Southern 
Bluffs southward toward the Republican. They signal 
easily for twenty miles with a lighted arrow, which they 
shoot into the air, and they can give any communication 
from bluff to bluff in that way. During the day they 
signal by various methods. Sometimes they do so with a 
pocket looking-glass. They get the focus of the sun, make 
the reflection visible for miles, and thus direct the move- 
ments of various parties to such points as they may wish. 

I have thus minutely described the position and action 
of the Indians to show how utterly fruitless must be In- 
dian campaigns. Suppose General Hancock should move 
north toward the Republican. The}" can keep twenty 
miles in advance of him, and learn his whereabouts every 



I 



THERE MUST BE PEACE. 73 

hour in the twenty-four. If they find his command divided 
and part of it vulnerable, they will assail and overwhelm 
it. If not, they will retreat toward the Platte, and per- 
haps by the time he ^ets to the Platte they will be in his 
rear on the Republican again, and no one but themselves 
cognizant of their whereabouts. Equally futile would be 
a movement from north of the Platte. They know to-day 
within fifty of the number of troops at Fort Sedgwick 
(Julesburg), and those troops cannot be moved in any 
direction without the spies on the bluffs signaling their 
numbers and direction, every hour in the day and night, 
clear to the Republican if necessary ; and, should General 
Potter (in command at Sedgwick) move south to the Re- 
publican, the foe would retreat before him, keeping out of 
sight, and, Avhen necessary, they would flank him east or 
west, and could capture the entire Platte route and be hid 
again before he could bring back his command. I have 
given the facts relative to our Indian campaign, and I leave 
it to your intelligent readers to determine how much the 
military are likely to do this season toward re-establish- 
ing peace on our great thoroughfares. 

But there must be peace at any price on the Plains; and 
howJs it to be attained? This is the great vexed ques- 
tion which the government is laboring to solve. Through- 
out the West, the ready answer is on every tongue. Re- 
call General Conner, give Chivington a command, and 
let them assail the Indians v\^herever they can be found. 
The preference expressed for Conner and Chivington has 
its existence in the fact that the}^ fought Indians as In- 
dians fight white men — attack all they meet, and don't 
encumber themselves with prisoners. "Old Wicked" as- 
sured me that five hundred Colorado volunteers, under an 
acceptable commander, would not leave a hostile Cheyenne 
or Sioux between the Platte and Sniokv Hill in two 



U PEACE WILL BE DEATH TO THE INDIAN. 

months' tin.e. ''Where would they be?" I asked him. 
''In hell," was the characteristic reply. "But are there 
none of them peaceable ?" I ventured to ask. " Yes, when 
they're dead," was the significant answer. And yet he 
confesses that the difficulties do not rest wholly with the 
Indians. " They have been greatly wronged," he said ; 
"robbed by agents, killed without cause by thieves and 
settlers ; but the white man or the Indian must now be 
driven out, and we can best spare the Indian." Whatever 
may be the views of the government, the policy of the 
Western settlers will, in the end, make peace ; but it will 
be the peace of death. The government will not, cannot, 
assume to exterminate the Indian. It cannot make war 
upon squaws and papooses ; but such war will come, and 
it will be effectual. The government may protest ; it may 
even exercise its power to shield the Indian and the fame 
of the nation from savage warfare ; but in the mean time 
every centre of Indian hostilities will have its Sand Creek, 
and every section will have its Chivington. A single 
massacre now, in any of the mining regions, would result 
in the destruction of every Indian within range of the 
miners. They would organize independent rangers, select 
their own leaders, arm and provision themselves, and their 
trophies would be only Indian skeletons bleaching on their 
path. Thus is Montana moving now since the murder of 
Bozeman, and so will Colorado act whenever the provoca- 
tion comes. The military will come after the rangers, 
and keep up the semblance of civilized warfare ; but the 
Indian will wade through the blood of his race to entire 
submission and peace, or he will finally end his history as 
he falls before the pursuit of the outraged and merciless 
settler. 

I speak of what will be, and not of what should be. It 
will be a fearful chapter when read from the opening to 



THE HARNEY AND CHIVINGTON WARS. 75 

the close ; but the white man will know only of the neces- 
sity for relentle&s warfare against the red man, while his 
wrongs to the savage will be without a faithful historian. 
We find that these lands have gold or timber, and we want 
great thoroughfares through them. The whites pass on 
w^ithout treaties, with their rifles in their hands, and they 
make might right. The Indian is indolent, thriftless, and 
naturally a thief. He steals a horse or a cow, and they 
are paid for by a war upon his tribe by the settlers or 
miners. He takes the war-path, spares neither innocent 
nor guilty, and the government is obliged to recognize an 
Indian war. Campaigns ensue, usually without important 
military results, and end in treaties made to be mutually 
violated by agents on the part of the government and by 
equally debauched Indians. Mr. Hooper, Delegate from 
Utah, who has been with me most of the trip thus far, 
assured me that the Harney war was the result of the 
stealing of a cow from a train of Mormon emigrants. The 
owner complained to the officer at the nearest post, and a 
detail was made to recapture the cow; but the Indian 
chief could not restore her, because she had been killed 
and eaten. He could not surrender the guilty parties, 
because he did not know them; but he proposed to pay 
for the cow in horses. The officer planted a gun to com- 
mand the camp, and required the restoration of the already 
butchered and eaten cow in fifteen minutes. Of course it 
couM not be done, and he opened on the camp, killing the 
chief and many others. The Indians rallied, and killed 
and scalped the officer and every man of his command. 
The Harney campaign followed ; and thus a cow worth 
about $11.50 cost us $1,000,000, or more, and many hun- 
dreds of lives. The Colorado war, which culminated in 
the Sandy Creek butchery of a whole Indian camp, in- 
cluding Avomen and children, had, I am credibl}^ informed, 



76 THE INDIAN- PROBLEM WILL SOLVE ITSELF. 

not even so good an excuse for its origin as the loss of a 
cow.* That honesty would have arrested it I do not 
doubt; but when once started it had to reach its logical 
conclusion, as must all Indian wars be decided, in meeting 
the savage with his own shocking savagery. It ended 
Indian depredations in Sandy Creek by exterminating the 
Indians in that section, and therefore is justified or excused. 
Thus will the Indian problem solve itself in time, and I think 
speedily ; and while he may live in future story and song 
to gild the romance of some tale or sonnet, there will be 
few to stop and lament his sad fate, as the resistless 
march of progress appropriates his home and hunting 
grounds to his pale-faced oppressor. 

Of Denver, Central City, and the mining regions of 
Colorado, I will speak in my next. I start for the mines 
to-morrow. 



* I give these statements as I received them from one who 
warmly espoused the cause of the Indians in all our wars. At the 
time the above letter was written, I had more faith in the Indian 
than subsequent observation and experience sustained. Still, I 
prefer to give the letters on this subject as originally written. 



LETTER YIIL 

A Prolific Subject for the Letter- writer. — An Afternoon at the 
Denver Eaces. — An Interesting Eace. — The Value of a Sport- 
ing Watch discovered — Denver and its People. — Its Experi- 
ence with Desperadoes. — The Fate of the Steels. — The Attack 
upon Mr. Byers. — Mr. Hepworth Dixon's Blunders. — His Hero 
Bob Wilson. — The Order, Morality, and Advantages of Den- 
ver. — Character of Western Settlers. — What Sacrifices they 
make, and how poorly requited. — The Lark. — The Prairie- 
dog and Owl. — The Kattlesnake. — The Indian Troubles again. 
— The Overland Route closed by Savages East and West. — In- 
dian Atrocities. — Western Volunteers the Remedy. 

^ Denver, Colorado, May 14, 1867. 

There is so much, here that is entirely novel and in- 
tensely interesting, that I scarcely know where to begin to 
write and where to stop. With all the jolting, wedging, 
bruising, and blistering of the trip, I have written seven 
long letters already, and it seems to me that I have not 
told half of w^hat I would wish to record. Here are gold- 
fields, vast prairies, fruitful farms systematically irrigated, 
a city that has grown from nothing in less than a decade, 
the Rocky Mountains presenting their colossal magnifi- 
cence to the eye for one hundred and fifty miles, and a 
thousand and one things and incidents which crowd upon 
my pen; but time and space demand that they shall be 
sparingly touched. 

I have now had several days in Denver, have tried their 
horse-races, their theatre, their drives, their churches, their 
reading-rooms, their stores, and had a gratifying trial of 

8 (77) 



Y8 AN AFTERNOON AT THE DENVER RACES. 

their hospitality, and all seem to be first-class. It is true 
that I was not nearly so much crowded at church as I was 
at the race-course and at the theatre ; but it is possible that 
most of the people were at the other churches. On Satur- 
day a friend drove up to the hotel and invited Mrs. McClure 
and myself to accept a seat in his carriage for the races. 
His wife accompanied him, and on every side the youth 
and beauty of the city might have been seen driving in 
the same direction. Wishing to see Denver as it is, we 
concluded to go, and soon found ourselves on a splendid 
course belonging to the Agricultural Society, inclosed by a 
concrete wall, and cleverly filled with as fine turn-outs as 
could be displayed in any of the inland cities of Pennsyl- 
vania. Nor was the crowd confined to the elegant and 
fashionable. Here was a rude mountaineer on an Indian 
pony, with spurs something after the fashion of a cogged 
cart-wheel ; there was one on an obstinate mustang, Avith 
blanket and buffalo coat ; and there were hundreds of 
others, from regular sports, boys and men, to the staidest 
the city can aflbrd. Deacons and vestrymen act as judges, 
and elders time the horses and make clever side bets on 
their favorites. The ladies have their watches, time the 
horses, and are most enthusiastic over the result. This 
may seem odd enough far East ; but they tell me out here 
that they donH raffle, as the churches do East, and they 
thank the Lord that they are not as other men. I had 
never seen a horse-race, and have no love for a fast horse. 
I consider a 2.40 horse a nuisance ; and I went to the course 
mechanically, because the politeness of my friend required 
it. I hoped that it would be brief, but in this I was dis- 
appointed. The course was fixed up for a regular after- 
noon's entertainment. The irrepressible lager beer was 
dispensed from licensed booths within the inclosure, by a 
regular Heading Dutchman, and ladies and gentlemen 



AN INTERESTING RACE. •7O 

washed down the clouds of dust occasionally by takmg a 
draught of the cooling stimulant. 

At last time was called, and we drove up to the course 
along with hundreds of others, and prepared ourselves to 
enjoy the sport as much as possible. It was, as I under- 
stand it, an entirely original sort of a race. The best horse 
did not run, nor did the fleetest trotter win. The purse 
was offered to the horse that could trot or pace a mile the 
nearest to three minutes. " Lady Alice," for instance, 
trotted it in 2.44 and lost, because another horse trotted it 
in 3.1 J. After several rounds had been made, I found 
myself pulling out my watch, because it seemed the cus- 
tom, and, to my surprise, I found that I had been carrying 
for several years the best watch for the purpose to be found 
on the ground. I could time to the one-fifth of a second, 
and in a little while my watch became the centre of interest 
for all the amateur sports around me, of both sexes. One 
heat there was a variance between the report of the judge 
and the report of my watch — his making the time 3.1^, 
while mine made it 3.1 1; and, as another horse had been 
timed at 3.1 J, the discrepancy between the two watches 
led to the repetition of the race between the two horses, 
when one made time one-half second better than the other. 
My excellent sporting watch, of whose valuable qualities 
I had been in blissful ignorance until then, at once stamped 
me as a first-class sport, and I Avas recognized by most of 
the attendants as if I had been an old acquaintance. In- 
deed, I found the sport by no means hard to take, and, after 
I got into it, no one watched the runs with more interest 
than I did. I was fascinated with '' Lady Alice," — cer- 
tainly the most graceful trotter and most amiable, winning 
little pony I have ever seen. She went her mile without 
the slightest break, and would have made it in 2.30 but 
for the sly admonition of bystanders, who kept the time, 



80 DENVER AND ITS PEOPLE, 

that she was going too fast. She is perfectly white, not 
larger than a good-sized Indian pony, and is the favorite 
of men, women, and children in Denver, and well knows 
and highly appreciates it. Ladies stop to caress her on 
the streets, and children fondle her as they would a house- 
hold pet. In spite of myself, I wanted her to win, and 
grieved when her splendid time made her lose. 

Denver is a clever place, and has clever, substantial, 
thrifty people. I have seen no place west of the Missis- 
sippi that equals it in the elements of positive prosperity. 
They have gone through the severest ordeal, and have 
come out purified in the crucible of sad experience. They 
have seen the day when gamblers, cut-throats, and thieves 
controlled everything — elected their municipal officers, 
possessed the wealth of the city, intimidated the officers 
of the law, and held high carnival in their work of robbery 
and death. But crime culminated, as it ever does, and 
gave birth to vigilance committees, which made a number 
of the most desperate outlaws dance jigs upon nothing on 
the hill hard by. Sometimes they would give them the 
form of a trial by an improvised court ; but the poor devil 
who was ever brought before that court knew that his 
time had come. At other times they would determine 
upon the death of some notorious outlaw, and a select 
party, chosen for the task, would " go for him," as they 
all say out here, and a hasty funeral was sure to follow. 
One fellow, named Steel, took offense, several years ago, 
at an editorial in the News, and rode up to the editorial 
office and fired several shots at Mr. Byers, the editor, while 
another man stood off some distance to protect the assassin. 
A simultaneous hunt was made for Steel, and in less than 
half an hour he lay on the pavement dead, having been 
shot as he turned a corner in his effort to escape. Steel 
had a brother who resolved to take the life of the man i 



THE FATE OF THE STEELS. 81 

who had killed him, and for two years they kept a lookout 
for each other. Once they met on a highway, both armed 
with rifles, but Steel was not the first to recognize his foe, 
and, when he did recognize him, the rifle of the latter was 
leveled. He did not fire, however, but told Steel to pass, 
which he did in safety, with a "dead bead" drawn on him 
until he was out of range. Subsequently they met in 
New Mexico, and the recognition was simultaneous ; both 
attempted to fire, but the ''drop" was got on Steel, and 
he shared the fate of his brother, and from the same hands. 
The man is now a quiet, respected citizen of Denver, and 
is generally beloved for exterminating the Steels. Another 
murderer was hunted by the vigilants among the Indians, 
captured, brought back, and hung; and a man named Ford 
was taken from the coach a few miles east of the city, by 
a company of the vigilants, shot by the roadside, and 
buried. AVho did it, no one has ever inquired. Many 
doubtless could guess, while some certainly know; but it 
is a forbidden topic. Ford had to die to give peace and 
security to Denver, and he was therefore shot like a dog. 
It is worth}^ of note that the people of new Territories, who 
are annoyed by the usual incursion of desperadoes, make 
it a point of honor not to banish them to other countries. 
They consider it in the highest degree dishonorable, and 
they never allow it. One citizen of this Territory, other- 
wise highly respected, has lost the confidence of the people 
for a lifetime, for saving the life of a bad man on condition 
that he should leave the country forever. " It's a pity," 
they say — " he's a clever man, but he didn't do the fair 
thing in getting that fellow off." Two years ago they had 
pretty well banished the characters dangerous to the peace 
and safety of the citizens ; but the orderly gamblers still 
controlled the municipality, had vast Avealth, and pursued 
their shameless vocation in open day. They had their 

8* 



82 ORDER AND MORALITY IN DENVER. 

gambling-houses in some of the best buildings and busi- 
ness localities of the citj, conducted them in view of every 
passer-by, just like merchants and tradesmen, had bands 
of music playing in front of the doors to entice the stranger, 
and were most prosperous. Indeed, so powerful were they 
at one time, that they controlled the legislature — something 
after the Pennsylvania fashion, I doubt not — to pass a bill 
legalizing gambling; and it is the chief blot oq Governor 
Evans's official record that he approved the measure. Last 
winter a year the growing morality of Denver rose up 
against the gamblers, and drove them out. They still 
doubtless remain in some numbers, but they dare not ex- 
pose their business to the public gaze, and they are under 
as wholesome restraint as in our best-governed cities. It 
was this early history of Denver that made Dixon blunder 
so fearfully as to its present social condition. To-day it is 
as free from open outrages upon public morals as any other 
Western place of the same size. Indeed, I regard it as far 
in advance of most of them. In Omahathe two most at- 
tractive and courted ladies at the most fashionable hotel 
in the place were, when I was there, known only as ''Mrs. 
Faro " and '' Mrs. Keno." Here they would not be tolerated 
in any circle outside of a church-pew or a horse-race. On 
Sunday the city was as quiet and orderly as is Chambers- 
burg, and the number of elegant churches, seminaries, 
schools, including a convent, reading-rooms, etc., leaves no 
room to doubt that Denver has a moral tone controlling 
its social life quite above the average of new cities. Dixon 
seems to have fallen into queer hands when he was here. 
His hero of the cit}^ is Bob Wilson, who, like the prophets, 
perhaps, is unknown as a hero at home ; and his statement 
that from three to five persons were usually killed during the 
night, and sometimes in open day, has not the shadow of 
truth to justify it. Upon the whole, I have found no place 



CnARACTER OF THE WESTERN SETTLERS. 83 

in the Far West that appears to me so pleasant socially, and 
so substantial in its business, as is Denver. True, it dis- 
counts its future development of the precious metals, but 
not more than is fully warranted. 

The general chciracter of the Western settlers is strikingly 
peculiar. They cannot be judged by any prevalent rules in 
the densely populated agricultural regions of the East. 
They are here solely because they differ from those they 
leave behind them. Many of them may be directed to the 
isolated life of a pioneer by circumstances ; but the fact that 
they have the energy and determination to defy adversity 
and brave the perils and privations of the plains, shows that 
they are made of sterner material than those who bow to the 
storm. The '' ranch " is the home of the Western settler. 
Whether of the farmer, station-keeper, or retailer of the 
scant necessaries which command a sale to the emigrants 
and travelers, all are called ranches. For six hundred 
miles east — from Denver to the Missouri River — there 
are scarcely any buildings but sod hovels, a single low 
story in height, and covered with sod or prairie grass. In 
these miserable holes they live, without a shrub or tree 
to shield them from the bleak storms of winter or the 
scorching suns of summer. Around them there are no 
signs of vegetable life but what is presented by the vast 
prairie that reaches from bluff to bluff, north and south 
and east and Avest, until the vision is lost in the hazy dis- 
tance. Not a plant is cultivated; not a single growth is 
known that affords sustenance for man. If they should 
plough and sow, they would be denied their harvest-time. 
The dry summers, usually without rain from May until 
fall, parch everything that is green, and only the tough 
grasses of the prairie preserve a sickly, shriveled life. 
These settlers produce nothing. They brave the perils of 
the scalping-knife for a time, to gather enough mone}^ to 



84 THE PRAIRIE-DOG AND THE OWL. 

enable them to remove east or still farther west and get a 
fruitful home. None of them, except those at important 
points like Julesburg, dream of spending a lifetime where 
they are. If they drive a prosperous trade for a few years, 
they save a considerable amount of money from the sale, 
at fabulous prices, of whisky, tobacco, canned fruits, bread, 
etc. But few of them, however, live thus until their am- 
bition is satisfied. Every few years the Indians make a 
clean sweep of their ranches — the last in 1865, leaving 
scarcely a habitation or a settler from the Mountains to the 
Blue River — and if the squatters save their scalps they are 
glad to sacrifice their accumulated property. If they fall 
victims to the merciless savages, others ard ever ready to 
take their places, and thus a continued line of settlers is 
kept up throughout the dreary plain. 

As yet I have not seen a blossom west of Ohio, save an 
occasional prairie-flower, that seemed to have flung its 
shrinking beauty untimely upoQ the wide-spread waste. 
Nor have I heard a song except the short, sweet warble 
of the lark, which has been ever on our path, and merry 
as if surrounded with the fragrance and dews of the East. 
The buffalo has at times gazed at us from his retreats 
along the bluffs, and the elegant antelope has often paused 
to gratify its curiosity by viewing the intrusion of its 
deadly enemy upon its grounds ; but whenever we got 
within long rifle-range it would bound off with grace and 
beauty that made me ever wish for its escape from the 
bullets sent whizzing after it. Only the jolly little prairie- 
dog and his inseparable companion, the owl, seemed to 
welcome us to their homes. In places there would be 
hundreds of them on an acre of ground alongside of the 
road, and they seemed to take especial pride in displaying 
themselves in their most graceful attitudes. The sober, 
solemn owl keeps guard at the door of their earthen 



THE INDIAN TROUBLES AGAIN. 85 

house, while his dogship suns himself on the grass or 
gathers his meals, and sometimes both sit in fraternal 
peace upon the common hearth. At times the owl will 
fly away as the coach approaches, but usually he sits in 
sullen composure and merely greets us with an occasional 
blink as we pass. The dog, more jolly and curious, will 
sit up on his hind legs and chatter away until we get close 
to him, when he usually utters a low bark, and disappears 
head-foremost in his little cavern home. The tradition that 
the rattlesnake shares the hospitality of the dog and owl, 
I very much question.* I have watched carefully for such 
a happy family, but never saw it, and the weather we 
have had after leaving Xorth Platte was just the kind that 
would have brought his snakeship to the surface to sun 
himself with his reputed companions. I doubt not that 
he often enters the joint abode of the dog and owl, but as 
an intruder and spoiler, and not as a welcome associate. I 
can understand why he should want to visit a nest of 
young prairie-dogs, for they would make a most delicate 
meal for him. 

The Indian question is becoming one of unpleasant in- 
terest. I just escaped three incursions on the Platte route 
made while I was on it ; and two raids have been made 
on it since I reached this city. The Smoky Hill route 
(there are two routes from the river to this point) has 
been raided daily since I started west from the Missouri; 

^- I notice that Mr. ftreeley and some other writers insist that the 
rattlesnake shares the home of the owl and prairie-dog as friendly 
tenants in common. After writing- the foregoing, I made very 
particular inquiries among the oldest and most observing settlers, 
and their testimony- is generally concurrent that the snake visits 
.the home of the prairie-dog only to forage on the little dogs. In 
all my observations, I never saw a snake in any of the hundreds of 
prairie-dog towns 1 passed. 



86 THE OVERLAND ROUTE CLOSED. 

and now the Indians have taken possession of the route 
between this and Salt Lake. The transportation company 
have refused to carry passengers westward since yester- 
day; and when I can get off at all, and whether it can be 
traveled with safety this season, are problems I cannot 
now solve. The coach company have appealed to the 
military authorities for prompt protection; but when it 
will be had, and, when had, whether it will be ample, are 
questions the future must decide. The coach that left 
Sunday for Salt Lake is stopped at a fort about one hun- 
dred and fifty miles west, and will not proceed until a 
force can be had to escort it safely. Mr. Hooper, the 
Mormon Delegate to Congress, and Harry Black, son of 
Judge J. S. Black, of Pennsylvania, are among the pas- 
sengers. Since they left, no passengers have been per- 
mitted to go, and none will start until there is a largely 
increased military force on the line. Is it not most remark- 
able that, with fifteen thousand troops in the different de- 
partments east of the Mountains, not one of the great 
thoroughfares is protected at all ? There Avere five thou- 
sand troops in General Augur's department when I traveled 
from Omaha to Denver, and yet the coach passed the ruins 
of one burnt ranch, and where another had been plundered 
by Indians, but two daj^^s before, without any effort to pro- 
tect it. At one point the military were clustered about a 
whisky-mill, because, as they said, they had been chased 
in by Indians but two miles ahead, and they enjoyed their 
retreat while the coach passed over the very line they re- 
ported unsafe for them to occupy. There are enough 
troops in the West to guard the three great thoroughfares, 
if they were detailed for the purpose, and, if that were 
done, the tide of emigration would settle the Indian ques- 
tion more speedily and effectually than regular troops will 
ever settle it. Look at the record of the last week. The 



THE WESTERN VOLUNTEERS. 87 

Smoky Hill route is raided daily. That of the Platte 
every other day. The Santa Fe route has its tales of 
Indian horrors. The Missouri River route, from Benton 
to Helena, has its fresh graves of cruelly murdered settlers 
and travelers ; and the Salt Lake route is confessedly im- 
passable. Most justly do the Western settlers complain of 
the neglect of the government. They do not ask for troops. 
Their appeal is that they may be authorized to engage a 
force to protect themselves, to be armed, equipped, and 
paid; but it is persistently denied. No one doubts that 
one thousand Colorado volunteers would do more to sup- 
press Indian hostilities than will the whole force under 
Generals Augur and Hancock. The well-known fact that 
they would do their work mercilessly, as do their cruel 
foes, Avould make the Indians glad to abandon their 
thoroughfares. They have no fear of regular troops, but 
they have a most wholesome dread of Western volunteers. 
There have never been renewed hostilities where Western 
men have suppressed them. 



LETTER IX. 

Colorado and her Progress. — The Substantial Progress of Denver. 
— Its Depression and Prospects. — The Evils of Selfish Politi- 
cians. — Colorado a Gigantic Suicide in the Management of her 
Rich Mines. — The Rage of Speculation, and consequent Bank- 
ruptcy. — The City of Abandoned Quartz-Mills. — Twenty Mil- 
lions of Capital wasted in Feverish Speculation. — Legitimate 
Development retarded. — The Prospect of Restoration to Pros- 
perous Business. — The Trip through the Mountains. — Their 
Matchless Grandeur. — The Storm-King in Conflict with the 
Snow-Capped Peaks. 

Idaho City, Colorado, May 17, 1867. 
I HAVE now spent a week in Colorado — mingled freely 
with her ever kind and generous people of all classes 
visited her vast and rich but sadl}^ unproductive mines 
shared the proverbial hospitality of her thrifty farmers 
attended her horse-races and reading-rooms, her churches 
and theatres ; witnessed her variable climate — from the 
chilling snow-storm to the hurricane that illumines its 
path with the lightning's flash ; perspired under her scorch- 
ing noonday sun, and spent the evenings of the same days 
around the cheerful, welcome fires of her own coal-fields, 
and seen her hopeful, expanding business centres in the 
tide of prosperity, and her deserted villages, created by 
feverish speculation, now the unsightly monuments of 
decay. All these pass before the inquiring tourist like 
some swift-revolving panorama, and each day leaves him 
bewildered with its shifting scenes and its impressive 
lessons. 

(88) 



SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS OF DENVER. 89 

Of all the Western cities I have visited, Denver seems 
to me the most inviting and substantial. It has had the 
usual schooling of prosperous cities in mining regions ; its 
history has been blotted b}^ the supremacy of thieves and 
desperadoes ; its vigilance committee has been compelled 
to usurp the functions of law in behalf of morality and 
public safety ; its gamblers have even, until within two 
years, occupied its choicest places, where the victim was 
lured to ruin in open day by bands of music; but a sturdy, 
earnest, faithful people have steadily warred upon defiant 
crime, until it has surrendered the contest and left Denver 
a city of commendable order and morals. It now numbers 
probably eight thousand inhabitants ; has seminaries and 
schools, nearly half a score of churches, three daily news- 
papers, an excellent reading-room, the finest stores I have 
seen west of Chicago, and a class of business men unsur- 
passed in character and attainments in any of our Eastern 
towns of the same size. It has the common fault of all 
Western cities. While the}?" grow at all, they grow with 
feverish, unhealthy pace. Instead of systematically labor- 
ing to cheapen homes, business places, and products, they 
all struggle to swell the tide of inflation. In a few in- 
stances, it may be sustained by fortuitous circumstances; 
but as a rule it results in financial disaster and in pros- 
trating prices, business, and growth below their proper 
level. Denver was the creation of the mines. It now is 
floating on the waves of hope, and discounting all its pros- 
pects. If the mineral Avealth of Colorado shall be mas- 
tered at an early day, then must Denver even surpass the 
expectations of its citizens; but if successive years of 
doubt and hope deferred should be the fate of Colorado, 
then must its decline be fearful and to very many fatal. I 
share fully the hope of the business men of Denver, that 
the}^ have reached nearly or quite the depth of misfortune, 

9 



90 COLORADO A GIGANTIC SUICIDE. 

and, while lots and rents are still at fabulous prices, I look 
for them to advance rather than decline. There is wealth 
enough to maintain the strugg-le until science shall pour 
into its lap the untold riches of the surrounding moun- 
tains, and the busy husbandman is yearly making the 
parched plains about the city to bloom and ripen with the 
golden fruits of the field. 

Colorado has been sadly wounded in the house of her 
friends. She has been the football for contending cliques 
of selfish and corrupt politicians, and is ever convulsed by 
their ceaseless machinations. It would seem that Caesar 
has a party, and Antony a party, but that Colorado has 
none. Badly as most of our Territories have been and 
are still governed, I know of none that has been so played 
upon and bedeviled by ambitious tricksters as Colorado. 
Her policy is unsettled, her future uncertain, and doubt, 
disappointment, and humiliation constitute the experience 
of her people. Governor Hunt would doubtless make her a 
State to-morrow, if he and his friends could hold the win- 
ning cards ; but whether many of the present State leaders 
would not, in that event, recede in favor of a continued 
territorial government, certainly admits of argument. This 
struggle, ever injurious to Colorado, must continue thus, 
it would seem, until she is admitted ; and for that reason 
alone, if for no other, I trust Congress will speedily end 
the contest in that way. The fact that those who ask her 
admission are in S3^mpathy with the loyal men of the 
nation, while those who resist it are in harmony with 
and sustained b}^ the faithless here and elsewhere, is an 
additional argument in favor of ending this bitter and dis- 
astrous strife, that should be conclusive. I firmly believe 
that the material interests of Colorado would be more ad- 
vanced in one year under a State organization than in 
five years of territorial misgovernment and acrimonious 
political warfare. 



THE RAGE FOR SPECULATION. ■ 91 

But also in her business prosperity has Colorado been 
a gigantic suicide. In 18G2 her mines yielded not less 
than eight millions of gold. In 1866 they yielded less 
than one million ; although her mines to-day present ten 
times the number of rich leads they had developed when 
the product was greatest. True, gulch-mining has passed 
away — it has done its work ; and the free gold of the 
surface-ores has changed, as the shafts have descended, 
into a combination with the refractory metals. But still 
Colorado should now be producing five millions of gold 
and silver annually. The rage for speculation in the East 
made some of the shrewder owners of the mines put them 
into huge corporations at bewildering prices; and the 
miners were not long in learning that it was easier to 
make a hundred thousand or so by a single sale to ver- 
dant capitalists than to earn it by pan and shovel or by 
rude stamps, however rich the yield. Thus the infection 
reached the mines, and thousands who were once content 
to earn treble wages at mining, became mere proprietors, 
speculators, and often swindlers. Legitimate mining was 
almost entirely abandoned, and the whole industrial wealth 
of Colorado w^as paralyzed. As soon as one good lead was 
sold, a hundred others, in the same locality, would be forced 
on to the market successfully by a regular system of jeremy- 
diddling, and ''salted" lodes and hired certificates were 
used to tempt the insatiable appetite for sudden wealth. 

It is a startling fact, but nevertheless true, that there 
has been nearly as much money invested in Colorado by 
corporations as the entire product of the mines from their 
discovery until now. I have seen the fruits of twenty 
millions of capital in one day's ride from Denver to this 
place. The Clear Creek gulch, for several miles east of 
Central City, until we leave it to ascend the range west 
of Central, is almost one continued city of idle mills and 



92 • ABANDONED QUARTZ 31 ILLS. 

machinery. Some are rotting down and their machinery 
falling to pieces ; others give unmistakable signs of aban- 
donment and decay. Still others are closed up in tolera- 
ble preservation, but evidently have served their purpose 
in the hands of their present owners. A few — not one in 
ten — are in operation ; but all, or nearly all, are guiltless 
of dividends to their stockholders. Many of the finest 
mills have been built by companies who were cheated in 
their mines, and who found, when they were ready to run, 
that they had no gold ore to reduce. Others found their 
ores so charged with sulphurets that they could not amal- 
gamate ; but perhaps the larger class were swindled and 
bankrupted in their management. None seem to have had 
practical ideas of the successful development of gold. 
They had been promised easy dividends by those who 
sold them their mines, and they all rushed up their mills, 
at enormous expense, before they had opened their leads 
or had any proper preparation for getting out their ore. 
The result was delay, wasteful extravagance, and, usually, 
bankruptcy. I saw fully a score of mills erected by East- 
ern companies which had not one good mine, put them all 
together. One excellent stone mill, built by General Fitz- 
John Porter, is now used as a stable, and it serves a better 
purpose than do most of the others. Many of them hav^e 
good mines ; but they never can work them profitabh^ as 
at present organized. They must, as a rule, begin again, 
procure new machinery adapted to the peculiar ores of 
Colorado, bring their inflated capital down to something 
like a rational figure, and enforce the same system of 
economy in their management that their owners practice 
in their private business affairs. 

It was a painful spectacle to see miles after miles of aban- 
doned mills standing as grim monuments of the folly of 
disappointed or ruined stockholders. Their owners have 



THE PROSPECT OF RESTORATWX. 93 

paid out their niillioiis of money without stint, and built 
up a continuous city along the gulch. Black Hawk City, 
Mountain City, and Central City have no visible lines of 
separation. A single narrow street winds along the stream, 
with compactly-built lines of houses on either side ; and 
even in the midst of the general prostration and ruin which 
surround the cities, they are keeping up the semblance of 
business in the very depths of despair. They are waiting 
and struggling to live until the new order of things shall 
dawn upon them — until the dead corporations shall be 
decently buried, and strong arms and practical minds shall 
drag forth the slumbering wealth. Missouri City stands 
in melancholy solitude upon the hill west of Central, with 
its tenantless houses, idle mills, and empty flumes, and 
Nevada City, winding off to the northwest, in continued 
decay, completes this colossal tomb of buried hopes. 

Think not that this gloomy picture is to be perpetual. 
This almost universal desolation is in the midst of enough 
gold to pay half our national debt. The mountain-ranges 
along Clear Creek, and thence westward to and beyond 
this place, are studded with gold. The gulches have all 
been dug over, and have well rewarded the heroes of the 
pan and spade. Russell Gulch, just above Central City, 
had five thousand miners in it seven years ago; and from 
the top of the hill near by, wherever the eye turns, it 
meets the ridged surface that tells of the wealth given up 
to the industrious laborer. From where I write, I can 
see the same evidences of the rich deposits from the range 
beyond ; and Empire and Georgetown are new centres of 
raining success. Georgetown has silver-mines which, for 
vastness and richness, are hardly surpassed on the conti- 
nent. Like the gold-mines, they are not yet mastered; 
but they will soon yield to the progress of science, and 
then mast Colorado once more send forth her millions 

9* 



94 DIFFERENT PROCESSES OF SMELTING. 

of treasure annually. How soon this can be done, I do not 
pretend to sa}^; Lut I hope and believe that another year 
will nearly, if not quite, achieve this great result. I have 
visited every accessible place where it is pretended to 
master the Colorado ores; and, while a number claim to 
have conquered them, I doubt whether any of the different 
methods now being tried combine all the essential requi- 
sites. Some of them, doubtless, save the gold ; but they 
have not been able to work large quantities at a moderate 
cost. The Reese process, now in operation below Cen- 
tral City by the California Reduction Company, seems to 
have attained the highest measure of success. They are 
producing from $100 to $150 per ton from ores which 
yield no results on the ordinary mill ; but they require a 
large cylinder, five feet in diameter and probably ten feet 
long, to reduce a ton per day. This process is the best 
effort at simplicity and the complete separation of the gold 
from the base metals ever yet put in operation. They can 
save from eighty to ninety per cent, from the obstinate 
ores of Clear Creek region. The Keith process is more 
complicated and, I learn, more expensive, but Avorks more 
ore with the same power, without saving so large a per- 
centage of the precious metal. The smelting-works of the ' 
Consolidated Gregory may or may not be successful. Of 
their operations and results the public have no knowledge, 
and stockholders generally but little, if any, more. The 
practical men here call them the Wall Street Works. 
Their stock is depressed and inflated at will by a circle of 
controlling owners, and of its actual value none but the 
initiated can judge correctly, as there are no dividends to 
determine the question. I do not, of course, pretend to 
express an intelligent judgment about these different pro- 
cesses. I welcome all of them, and would be glad to see 
ten times the number in actual operation; for only by per- 



WIIEX MINING WILL BE PROFITABLE. 95 

sistent, patient, practical efforts, and the combination of 
the successful features of each system, can the Colorado 
ores be made to give up their countless wealth. The day 
cannot be far distant when they must yield to complete 
mastery, as the New and Old Worlds are both directing 
their best scientific and practical efforts to solve this great 
problem. I do not hope that any process will ever be dis- 
covered to save the corporations now scattered all over 
the mining regions of the Territory, as they are now or- 
ganized ; and the sooner this fact is appreciated, the better 
it will be for all parties interested. The inflated capital 
and cumbrous managements must be abandoned, and new 
organizations effected, based upon actual capital and con- 
fided to practical miners or scientific mill-men. Mining 
and the reduction of the ores will become separate and 
distinct enterprises ; both will command the most skilled 
labor in their respective branches, and both will thus 
prosper. I believe that one year hence no owner of mines 
will think of reducing his own ores, and few owners of 
mills Avill trouble themselves about the purchase of mines. 
When this fearful rubbish of decayed corporations — now 
holding many valuable, but to them useless, mines in their 
clutches — shall have been cleared away, mining in Colo- 
rado will again become a legitimate business, and the 
miner will need no more than his own industry to develop 
his claim. Then, and not till then, will mining be profit- 
able to any parties in Colorado ; and when that time shall 
come, this rich but sorely-depressed Territory will rival 
California and Montana in the production of the precious 
metals. 

I should be glad to sa}^ something about the magnifi- 
cent scenery presented by the trip from Denver here, but 
I have neither time nor space. From the base of the 
mountains, some tliirteen miles west of Denver, we were 



96 THE TRIP THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS. 

whirled through the narrow canons, over the steep de- 
clivities, and along the mountain -sides, over the best 
stage-road I ever traveled, until we landed in this lovely 
little village, hemmed in by a circle of ranges. Its cele- 
brated hot soda-springs made me tarry a day to enjoy 
them ; and I hazard nothing in predicting that in a very 
few years they will attract thousands annually from the 
Eastern coast in search of rest and of nature's sublimest 
beauties. Go where you will in this section, the prospect 
is most charming; but all is dwarfed by the indescrib- 
able grandeur of the mountains. Yolumes have been 
written about the grandeur of the Alps; but the world 
has only one such view as is presented from the rolling 
prairie east of Denver. In bewildering sublimity it is 
without parallel. There may be isolated views of the 
Alps as beautiful as any twenty miles of the Rocky 
range, and the icy land of Russian America has its St. 
Elias, that towers higher toward the heavens than the 
highest of these; but here is presented, in one grand view, 
nearly two hundred miles of the Rocky Mountains, from 
beyond Pike's Peak far off to the south, thence by the 
Spanish Peaks, to Long's Peak, and still on toward the 
north, until the range is lost in the dimness of distance. 
Black, threatening clouds hung about them when first I 
saw them, and added to the peerless beauty of the scene. 
Around Long's Peak the storm-king seemed to be spell- 
bound or held an easy captive, for he had no deliverance 
until his heavy clouds had been discharged and broken 
and his thunderbolts drawn in harmless violence. Far 
behind the struggling tempest the setting sun was casting 
his evening rays through the tossing clouds. On either 
side of the storm he was reaching out his light, flinging 
the silver lining around the raging elements, breaking in 
refulgent splendor on the distant peaks, and flashing in 



THE GREAT SNOWY RANGE. 9Y 

almost dazzling brilliancy upon their eternal snows. To 
the north the sweeping snows, falling and flitting in grace- 
ful waves, seemed to defy the lightning's erratic flash, 
while on the south the bow of promise illumined the 
heavens. It was the very sublimity of moral and material 
grandeur — a panorama that God alone could have fash- 
ioned. The great Snowy Range is the first to meet the 
eye, and the vision insensibly wanders along its vast, 
ridged, and broken sweep, Avhich loses itself in the deep-blue 
vaulted dome on either side. It has no two points alike, as 
if the Great Architect meant to confuse the very concep- 
tions of men in this colossal masterpiece of His creation. 
Yonder is a cluster of peaks which look as if made up of 
huge inverted icicles, and beside them it would seem that 
gigantic snowdrifts, with their unique and countless forms, 
had fallen in. Here is a hillock of spotless white, whose 
clothing changes not with the revolving seasons, regular, 
graceful, rounding with apparent mathematical precision 
until it finishes with its tapered cap of snow. There are 
deep ravines, vast gorges, and rude, scraggy peaks, as if 
the earthquake had taken the Western world in its frenzied 
arms and tossed its mightiest rocks in wild disorder across 
the plains. Thus, north and south, as far as the eye can 
see, and for five hundred miles toward the setting sun, 
these vast, snow-clad monuments of omnipotent power pre- 
sent their varied beauties and surpassing grandeur, and I 
turn from them only wiien the last ray of the receding sun 
has parted with their topmost crowns, and the mellow 
moonlight takes up the grateful task of displaying, through 
nig-^ht's weary shadows, this mute but most impressive 
tribute which an all-wise God has reared to Himself. 



L E T T E R X. 

Indian-bound in Denver. — The Savages controlling the Overland 
Koute East and West. — General Augur's Use of Troops. — In- 
teresting Telegraphic Correspondence with Him. — His "Upper 
Country" Campaign. — No Earnest Effort to protect the Great 
Overland Eoutes. — A Pleasant Time with the Coloradans. — 
New Treatment of Strangers. — Why Dixon was fooled. — The 
Variety of Character in the West. — The Stage-Driver. — His 
Skill, Intelligence, and Courtesy. — Staging about Denver. — The 
"Square Meals" of the West. — High Prices of Labor. — House- 
Servants and Wives wanted. — Judge E^^ster. — Colonel Wash. 
Lee. 

Denver, Colorado, May 20, 1867. 
Still in Denver, with no prospect of an early departure. 
If I had the time to spare, I would not regret the deten- 
tion ; but, anxious as I am to get to the north by Utah, the 
days hang heavily on my hands. I dare not leave for any 
of the many distant points of interest in the Territory, lest 
I forfeit my title to the first coach that starts out with pas- 
sengers for Salt Lake, and I am putting in the time as best 
I can, between devouring the exchanges of the several 
newspaper offices, boring the coach-agents, complaining of 
the military, and discussing the Indian question with the 
people generally. It is the question of all others that the 
Far- Western people prefer to elucidate ; and they seem to 
thrust it upon every visitor, morning, noon, and night, 
until they consider that their policy of prompt and merci- 
less extermination has been adopted. 

The stage company has declined passengers since the 
12th instant. On that day, Mr. Hooper, Delegate to Con- 
(98) 



GENERAL AUGUR'S USE OF TROOPS. 90 

gress from Utah, and others, started west ; but they have 
enjoyed the luxury of rusticating for a week at Cooper's 
Creek, without accommodations, and living on provisions 
sent them daily from this place by coach. From that point 
west, for fifty miles, there is no stock, and, of course, no 
transit for passengers. " The horses not captured by the 
Indians have been " bunched" at either end of the hostile 
country, and I doubt whether there will be regular coaches 
through for a month to come, if indeed they get into oper- 
ation at all this season. The universal impression of the 
people is that the Indians are now stealing stock to mount 
their warriors, with the intention of inaugurating general 
hostilities as soon as the grass is sufficiently grown to feed 
their horses, on the war-path ; and, if this be true, the In- 
dian troubles are just beginning, and a month hence there 
will be no coaches at all west of this point, and very few 
regular trips between this and the terminus of the rail- 
road. 

I have exhausted every means I could devise to get off, 
. but without in any degree facilitating my passage west- 
ward. Knowing as I do that General Augur has nearly 
or quite five thousand troops in his department, that over 
one thousand of them are at Fort Sedgwick, less than two 
hundred miles east of this point, and that he has but this 
one great thoroughfare to protect, the Smoky Hill route 
being in Hancock's department, I at once appealed to him, 
by telegraph, to hasten forward a sufficient number of 
troops to protect the stations and the travel. I was 
amazed to find less than three hundred troops on the 
entire line between this and Salt Lake — a distance of six 
hundred miles, — and of that number less than one-third 
mounted, or in any way fitted to protect the route. I took 
it for granted that General Augur would at once open the 
line, as it seemed to be entirely in his power to do so ; but 



100 TUE <' UPPER COUNTRY'' CAMPAIGN. 

he telegraphed me a speech in reply, at the cost of $18.06, 
the material portion of which was that the route didn't 
need protection, and that if it did he couldn't protect it. 
He also favored me with- the luxury of a disquisition on 
the o])stinacy of army contractors, who were preventing 
him from moving his army into the "upper country." I 
need not say that I ceased telegraphic communication with 
military head-quarters. I may, if detained at Big Lara- 
mie, get General Augur to telegraph me the 119th Psalm, 
if the time passes wearil}^ ; but I do not think it likely that 
I shall make au}^ further telegraphic efforts to get the In- 
dians out of the way. 

The ''upper country," of which General Augur speaks 
as the destination of his army, is where not a solitary trav- 
eler nor private train has ventured this season, and where 
none will venture while there are any Indian disturbances. 
There are forts to supply, and government trains must be 
protected in supplying them; but beyond that any military 
movements in that direction will be disastrous failures. 
Here is a great thoroughfare, over which thousands of 
people wish to travel this season, and it should be made 
safe first of all ; but it seems to be the last point looked 
after b}^ our military commanders. The}^ insist that the 
Indians are not at war, — that they are simply stealing 
stock. Granted, for the sake of argument, that they are 
now simph^ stealing, what are they stealing horses for? 
It is done b}^ Indians Avho have openly declared war; and 
when they have the horses, what will they do ? I may be 
stupid on this point, but I cannot resist the conviction that 
if the Indians were to try their peculiar system of thieving 
upon General Augur, he would use different terms to express 
his idea of their acts, as long as he could use any terms at 
all. In the same raid by which they interrupted the coach- 
line west, they killed and scalped one railroad engineer, and 



A PLEASANT TIME WITH THE COLORADANS. 101 

severely wounded and imperfectly scalped another ; and on 
the Smok}^ Hill route they have killed three station-keepers 
since I have been here, scalped them, cut them in pieces, 
and burned their remains. This is called ''thieving" in 
military parlance out West ; and I presume that if the 
Indians should scalp me, and have a war-dance over my 
mutilated corpse, the commanding officer would report a 
case of petty larceny on the part of the savages. 

Judge Carter, of Bridger, has been among the detained 
passengers here for several days, but he got together a 
party of half a dozen fi'ontier-men and started off in the 
coach yesterday for Cooper's Creek, intending to do the 
best they could thence westward. They will join Hooper's 
party at Cooper's, and may manage to *' bunch" (as they 
call it here) two coaches, and proceed slowly, traveling 
in the dangerous country only at night. In this way they 
may get through ; and Judge Carter proposes to do the 
work of the government by sending back friendly Indians 
to protect the coaches. So far as concerns the opening and 
protecting of the stage-line, I would not exchange Judge 
Carter for a score of major-generals, even with a lieutenant- 
general thrown in. 

Save my disappointment in not getting west, as I hoped, 
my stay among the people of Colorado has been exceed- 
ingly pleasant. They do not cultivate the ornamental 
very much in the reception of pretentious strangers, but 
they do welcome, with genuine kindness and hospital it}^, 
all who behave themselves properly. Those who come 
hera-overflowing with knowledge, and the grace to dis- 
pense it in a patronizing way to the denizens of the plains 
and mountains, generally go wooling and come home 
shorn; but those who come as gentlemen, and prove them- 
selves worthy of the title, meet with gentlemen and re- 
ceive the treatment due. The people here judge quite as 

10 



102 VARIETY OF CHARACTER IX THE WEST 

well of the merits of a gentleman as do the more assuming 
circles of the East — ^jDcrhaps a little better. They do not 
lay much stress on the color of a man's gloves, the cut of 
his coat, or the elegance and grace with which he swings 
his cane; but they appreciate good manners, intelligence, 
and fair repute, and welcome them to their firesides. He 
who comes here, expecting to judge men by appearances 
and get his information from the outward signs of gentility, 
will, as a rule, spend his money and time in vain, besides 
making a fool of himself You will often find some grad- 
uate of Yale '' bull-whacking" his own team from the river 
to his mines, looking as if he had seldom seen soap and 
water, and had pitched his clothes on at some second-hand 
shop; while if you want a first-class loafer 3'ou will find him 
in seedy gentility, sponging upon strangers and visitors 
about public houses, ever read}^ with startling tales, such 
as Avere played off upon Dixon. Had that gentleman met 
the people as a student rather than as a teacher, leaving 
the "Athenaeum" behind him, he would have been spared 
the fantastic figure he cuts in his history of these settlers. 
Even Bob Wilson, his galvanized hero of Colorado, admits 
only to having casually met Mr. Dixon, and, beyond Bob, 
no one confesses to his acquaintance. 

There is here, as elsewhere, every variety of character ; 
but of all classes the sojourner can learn much, if he so 
chooses. The. jolly, self-complaisant, semi-comic whittler 
who described to me the nature of the cotton wood by 
saying that he had built a shanty of it and found it 
warped, in one day and night, so that it stood ''square on 
the roof," and who described the perpendicular heights of 
Pike's Peak by declaring, in the most positive manner, 
that it required a man to look four times, and chalk the 
places, before he could see to the top, was neither fool nor 
knave, nor did he leave, without giving me, in his own 



] 



THE STAGE-DRIVER. 103 

extravagant Avay, much information that I desired. But 
the stage-driver is the institution of the Far West, and 
I have enjoj^ed his acquaintance in no common degree. 
The driver of the plains and mountains is an expert with 
the lines and whip, and has no charge of horses except- 
ing when they are on the road. He is an educated man 
in his line. He usually drives from fortj^-five to fifty 
miles, while the teams are changed every ten miles. 
When he arrives at a " swing station" (where the teams 
are changed), he drops the lines, and chats with the land- 
lord or the passengers while his team is unhitched and 
another attached. He then walks, with becoming dignity 
and conscious responsibility, about the newly-hitched team, 
sees that the traces, lines, etc. are all in perfect order, then 
gathers up his lines and, with the majesty of a legislative 
presiding officer, calls out, "All 'board," and away he goes. 
I have made the acquaintance of every one I have traveled 
with, and never yet found one that even approached loqua- 
city. They will talk freely, and always intelligently, but 
you never get more than a hasty glance of their eyes from 
their gay and fleet teams. Some, indeed, I found unpleas- 
antly reticent, but all, without exception, were courteous. 
I doul)t not that they are often bored until their patience is 
sorely tried, and perhaps I repeated, in some instances, that 
particular feature of their experience ; but, as a rule, I found 
them highly entertaining. They usually drive six horses, 
and aim to be, as they doubtless are, the best drivers in 
the world. I rode outside with them frequently, and was 
charmed with the caution and precision they display in the 
narrow, steep, and sharply-curved roads of the mountains. 
With a single hand they will sweep their horses around a 
short turn, or pass another team, with a grace and elegance 
that are perfect 1}^ artistic ; and, while they almost ,fly down 
the steep mountain declivities, they insure safety by never 



104 THE ''SQUARE 3IEALS'' OF THE WEST. 

losing for a moment the complete control of a single horse 
in the team. A word from the driver is expected to be 
obeyed by the horse to which it is addressed ; and woe to 
the luckless animal that does not heed! The long lash of 
the whip will whirl in the air, and its keen, silken cracker 
will bring the blood from the flank of the obstinate animal. 
The teams are all matched, with the gayest of leaders, and 
it is not uncommon for them to make ten miles an hour on 
the plains, or descending the mountains. Distance in stag- 
ing seems to be dwarfed, out here. I now consider fifty 
miles of staging, over these excellent roads, but a pleasant 
little morning ride. Last week I breakfasted at Idaho, drove 
six miles over one of the steep spurs of the mountains, 
and was in Denver for two o'clock dinner — having traveled 
nearly sixty miles over harder hills than separate Cham- 
bersburg from Bedford. I tire, of course, of being cramped 
up in a crowded stage ; but a little walk at each station, in 
this region, makes one feel as fresh as if resting for an 
hour. The air is so pure that it seems to strengthen not 
only the lungs, but the blood, the brain, the very bones, 
and it is a luxury to breathe in its sweet invigoration. 

I had read so much of the " square meals" of the Far 
West, that I expected to find eating anything but a luxury 
in this country. In this I have been agreeably surprised. 
I have traveled the plains for three hundred miles by 
stage, and the mountains for over one hundred miles, 
and the meals have been quite as good as the average 
of hotel meals in the East. At the Alkali Station, fifty 
miles west of the railroad, with not a cultivated field or 
even a garden within two hundred miles of it, I had the 
best meal set before me since I left Chicago; and all along 
the plains, and far up in the heart of the mountains, I have 
found good bread and butter, fresh eggs, tolerable ham and 
beef, and often the most delicious antelope or venison 



HIGH PRICES OF LABOR. 105 

broils, and I have had canned fruits and vegetables at 
every meal, whether breakfast, dinner, or supper. Corn, 
tomatoes, beans, oysters, and all kinds of fruits are 
scarcely luxuries in this far-off region, for they tempt the 
appetite of the traveler every day. The uniform price of 
meals for travelers is $1.50, and they are usually paid for 
most cheerfully. By fall the Pacific Railroad will have 
passed Denver one hundred miles to the north ; and the 
Eastern Division, from Leavenworth by Smoky Hill, will 
run direct to Denver in the spring of 1868. Prices must 
then diminish, as the cost of transportation has heretofore 
been enormous, and living will be nearly as cheap in Colo- 
rado as in Pennsylvania. 

The high cost of the necessaries of life makes the wages 
of labor very high, and the development of the country 
has thus been greatly retarded. Ordinary farm-hands 
command from forty-five to sixty dollars per month, with 
boarding, and in the mining regions five dollars per day is 
a moderate price. But the highest rates, comparatively, 
are paid to domestics, for the reason that female servants 
are exceedingly scarce. But few laboring women can af- 
ford to come to the Territories, and those who happen here 
get fabulous wages The most ordinary female house-ser- 
vants get fifty dollars per month, and board, and good 
female cooks command from seventy-five to one hundred 
dollars per month. One hundred ordinarily good female 
servants could now find permanent employment in pleasant 
homes in Denver, at an average of twelve dollars per week 
and boarding; and three months' wages would pay their 
fare from the East to this city. Besides the high wages they 
can get, they are in equal demand in the matrimonial 
market. The adult unmarried population of the Territory 
is probably ten males to one female, and here, as elsewhere, 
people continue to be given in marriage. The importation 

10* 



106 COLONEL WASH. LEE. 

of several hundred virtuous, industrious, single females 
into Colorado would be a great benefaction both to the 
females themselves and to the people of the Territory. 

I had hoped to meet Judge C. S. Eyster here by this 
time, but he is not even reported on the route as yet. He 
is the most popular official in the Territory, and is anx- 
iously inquired for daily. It will be gratifying to his 
many friends in the East to know that he is deservedly 
esteemed here both as a citizen and as a judge ; and 
whether Colorado shall be a State or a Territory, Judge 
Eyster will share her honors. 

I send my kindest regards to Colonel Wash. Lee, of 
Luzerne, for the magnificent glass he sent me before start- 
ing on my trip. With it I can bring the distant ranges 
alongside of the coach-wheels as I travel along, and can 
fringe the green grass of the prairie with the far-off moun- 
tain snows. I have not yet tried it on Indians, as I have 
not lost any, and therefore do not hunt for them ; but, if 
they should come around the edges, unless all appearances 
are deceptive, I could kill them ten miles off with a com- 
mon rifle and Lee's glass. I trust that he will take my 
word for this, as I prefer not to practice shooting at red- 
skin targets during this journey. 



I 



LETTER XL 

Still Indian-bound in Colorado. — End of Hancock's Expedition. — 
Another Peace-Talk to be had with the Savages. — The Indians 
raid the Overland Eoutes, while the Troops are ordered to hunt 
Indians where they are not to be found. — General Sherman's 
Policy. — Great Injustice to the West. — The Tide of Emigration 
arrested. — The Necessity of protecting One Koute. — Contrac- 
tors said to be encouraging "War. — The Sad Failure of Mining 
Companies in Colorado. — Their Hopeless Euture. — Legitimate 
Enterprise the only Way to Success in the Mines. — The Varia- 
tions of Colorado Climate. — The Crops, 

Denver, Colorado, May 21, 1867. 
I AM still Indian-bound in this city, and when I can go 
on westward with reasonable safety depends entirely upon 
the enemy, rather than upon friends. With nearly ten 
thousand troops in the departments of Generals Hancock 
and Augur, there are not any ten miles of the two great 
thoroughfares, from the Missouri River to this place, that 
twenty Indians could not " clean out" any day. Hancock 
has made one campaign against the red-skins, and with 
what result your readers well know. It is now officially 
announced that his expedition is at an end, and General 
Sherman has joined Hancock to go down and have a 
peace-talk with the same Indians who talked peace with 
him at Fort Zarah and immediately proved their pacific 
intentions by fresh atrocities. In the mean time, while the 
troops are ''bunched" in forts, the Smoky Hill route is 
the scene of a fresh raid or murder almost daily, and the 
coach passes solely because the Indians thus far have 

(lot) 



108 THE INDIANS RAID TEE OVERLAND ROUTES. 

allowed it to do so. Since I have been detained here, three 
station-keepers on that route have been murdered by the 
Indians, scalped, their bodies cut to pieces and burned, 
and several stations have been robbed of stock, and ranches 
have been destroyed. There are enough idle troops in the 
department to station fifty on ever}^ mile of the road ; but 
they seem to be used for every other purpose than that for 
which the}^ should be employed. On the Platte route five 
distinct raids have been made since I have been on it, one 
station burned, and but two days ago a stock-keeper was 
killed and scalped within a mile of Fort Sedgwick. West, 
the Indians have cleared the stage-route of stock for eighty 
miles, — stealing part of it and compelling the withdrawal 
of the balance, — and two men have been scalped. The stage 
company have declined to forward passengers west from 
this point since the 12th instant, when Mr. Hooper and 
others started and got as far as Cooper's Creek, where 
they still remain. Judge Carter picked a party of frontier- 
men and started, determined to fight their way through 
and organize a force of the Indians to escort the stage. 
All these things have occurred in a department where 
there are five thousand troops, with nearly the same num- 
ber in Hancock's department, immediately south. Instead 
of protecting- the thoroughfares, they are planning grand 
campaigns north and south of the lines of travel, leaving 
them to be raided, ravaged, and crimsoned with the blood 
cf the emigrant and traveler whenever the Indians take a 
fancy that way. The stage-line of six hundred miles from 
here to Salt Lake, traversing all the passes of the mountains, 
where the best ambuscades in the world are to be found, 
has less than three hundred soldiers on it — two companies 
of infantry at Fort Bridger, just where the Indians are 
friendly, and one company of cavalry, reduced by deser- 
tions and demoralized generally. Instead of posting troops 



GENERAL SHERMAN'S POLICY. 109 

on the line to protect emigration, transportation, and 
travel. General Augur (doubtless acting under specific 
orders) is busy preparing for a campaign into the " upper 
country," just where nobody thinks of going, and where 
there is nothing to protect but the troops in the forts. 
Last year the Reno and Phil. Kearney route was pro- 
nounced open for emigration ; and hundreds of graves 
along its entire length, with the Phil. Kearney massacre, 
as the central figure, attest how the promise was kept with 
the emigrants. This year it is accepted as hostile and im- 
passable, and two thousand troops are about to march 
along it, strengthen its posts, and play the farce of pro- 
tecting a route that is a stranger to the tread of the white 
man, while the great thoroughfare is practically abandoned 
by the military, excepting as troops are huddled in huts here 
and there to mock the sojourner. 

I do not hope to accomplish anything by stating the 
facts. Out here no one expects sensible action on the part 
of the military, and they have to bow to perpetual imbe- 
cility and wrong. General Sherman is presumed to have 
more common sense than usually falls to the lot of com- 
manders ; but should it be necessary to say to him that 
his first duty to emigration, to the West, and to the country 
is to determine upon some route or routes to the Far West, 
and give adequate, complete protection ? Colorado, Mon- 
tana, Idaho, and Nebraska are inviting fields for thousands 
upon thousands of the enterprising and industrious people 
of the East; and the right way to make the West self-pro- 
tecting is to maintain safe routes for emigration, so that 
settlements may spring up in this distant world of wealth. 
When the settlers once rear their homes or the miners 
open their claims, the Indian is doomed to peace or death. 
He well knows that red tape and the circumlocution of 
government warfare do not obtain in the summary adjust- 



110 CONTRACTORS ENCOURAGING WAR. 

ment of difficulties between him and them, and he there- 
fore emigrates, or smokes the pipe of peace in their ranches. 
I doubt not that ten thousand people will be prevented 
from emigrating to the Far West this season by the Indian 
troubles on the great thoroughfares, and this, too, when 
there are more than enough troops already here to afford 
the amplest protection. Is the government wise in this 
,policy ? If it is, I must confess that the whole West, and 
all who visit it, are most fearfully deluded. I know that 
the popular impression in the East, and perhaps the preva- 
lent conviction in official circles, is that Indian wars are 
mere speculations. I am not prepared to deu}'^ this as a 
general proposition. I cannot resist the belief that most, 
if not all, Indian troubles have their origin in frauds, or 
contemplated frauds, alike upon the Indians and the 
government. I hear it charged that government con- 
tractors, agents, and officers have much to do with the 
creation of Indian wars ; and the suspension of travel 
West is imputed to a deliberate purpose of certain con- 
tractors who wish to compel modified terms from the 
government. These grave suspicions may or may not be 
so ; I have not means of ascertaining whether they are 
wholly or partially true ; but I do know that if the 
government would throw its troops upon the routes of 
travel and make them safe for the contractors, there could 
be no pretext whatever for attempting to create Indian 
troubles. It would seem that the surest policy for the 
government to pursue would be to open the lines, fight, or 
beat the Indians away from them, and then say to con- 
tractors, "The way is open: perform 3'our duty." 

But enough of grumbling : it will do no good. I am but 
repeating the earnest protests of the Western people for 
j^cars against the costly and terrible mismanagement of 
Indian affairs ; and, as they have thus far been disregarded, 



SAB FAILURE OF MINING COMPANIES. HI 

I need not cherish the hope that now, when sillj cam- 
paigns have been deliberately planned and the troops 
disposed to carry them out, the observations of an humble 
tourist will be heeded. I will get away West as soon as 
I can, and have some faint hope that to-morrow will sec 
me on the way to Fort Saunders, to take my chance with 
the rest in passing the gauntlet of the savages. 

There is much I would like to say about Colorado; but 
time and space compel me to be brief. I have visited her 
gold and silver mines, and seen the fearful waste Eastern 
speculation has scattered in fatal profusion among them. 
With countless wealth in the mountains, there are palpable 
decline and distress in ever}^ mining region I have seen. 
Let me entreat Eastern companies to learn at once the 
utter hopelessness of their enterprises as now organized 
and managed. Their mills are almost wholly worthless, 
because they are not adapted to the successful reduction of 
the obstinate combinations to be found everywhere in the 
Colorado ores. Many companies now on the very verge 
of bankruptc}^, or actuall}^ in its embrace, have valuable 
mines, and they cling to the hope that thc}^ may yet make 
their enterprises successful. It is folly; it is madness. It 
would be a blessing to both Eastern capitalists and Colo- 
rado if one vast fire should sweep the mills of Clear Creek 
from existence. Their charred walls would not impede 
progress, as do vast buildings with engines and mills un- 
employed, and never to be employed, as at present consti- 
tuted. Equally foolish, wasteful, and disastrous must be 
every effort of amateurs to reduce the ores by experiments 
with the various processes, flooding the market, and tempt- 
ing the disappointed stockholder to make another effort to 
save his investment. Let ever}^ Eastern company wait 
until the problem is fully and practically solved here among 
the mines, and then they may hope to get more returns. 



112 VARIATIONS OF COLORADO CLIMATE. 

They could profitably employ some capital, in the mean 
time, by thoroughly testing their lodes and bringing to 
the surface large quantities of ore. When the time conies 
for the successful reduction of these ores, the work of re- 
ducing them will be as distinct from mining as is milling 
from farming. Where there are good mines, therefore, the 
companies which early accept the inevitable revolution in 
the production of the precious metals will yet attain suc- 
cess; but let them understand that these mills are, as a 
rule, valueless, and the cost of their construction an irre- 
trievable waste. I firmly believe that this year will nearly, 
if not entirely, master these ores, so that every good mine 
can be worked profitably; but stockholders might as well 
attempt to change the fashion of the Snowy Range as to 
persist in the effort to mine and reduce these ores with 
their present machinery. I know that this will be unwel- 
come information to thousands of j^our readers ; but its truth 
is fearfully attested by the sacrifice of $20,000,000 in fruit- 
less efforts to refute it. 

I have seen almost every feature of the variegated climate 
of Colorado. I entered Denver through a regular old-fash- 
ioned thunder-storm. Next day I braved its scorching sun 
and parching winds. I next spent a day in the mountains, 
starting with a clear morning and a hot sun, soon to be 
exchanged for a thunder-shower, and that soon to give 
way to a driving snow-storm — giving me sunshine, rain, 
thunder, and snow in a distance of thirty miles. Since 
then we have had what would pass for regular Pennsyl- 
vania March storms of sleet and snow. Yesterda}^ the 
snow fell all the day, and now the mountain-ranges are 
clad in white, while the plains have been cleared of their 
snowy garb. Each year seems to increase the numljcr of 
showers, and I doul)t not that both Colorado and Utah 
will soon be farmed with very little, if any, resort to irri- 



THE CROPS. 113 

gation. It seems that as the water is conducted over the 
plains by ditches, and spread over the fields, it creates 
clouds and rains, and as irrigation is extended its neces 
sity is gradually diminished. Last year, Utah could have- 
grown all its field-crops without any resort to irrigation, 
and even in Colorado, where irrigation is in its infancy, 
but little was needed in the settled regions. But for the 
grasshoppers, the agricultural interests of the Territory 
would be enjoying a high degree of prosperity. Last year 
they did but little harm, and the crop of wheat is more 
than equal to the wants of the people. It is now sold 
cheaper here than in Philadelphia; but oats, barley, and 
corn command the same price as wheat — five cents per 
pound. Should the mines be conquered by another year, 
the population of Colorado would double in six months, 
and agricultural products would command a still higher 
price ; but, in any event, farming seems to be one of the 
certain channels to success in Colorado. 

I hope to get away to-morrow. If not, I may go down 
to Pike-s Peak to visit the Garden of the Gods, the Boiling 
Spring, etc., and ma}^ write again of Colorado. 



11 



LETTER XII.* 

A Journey to Colorado City. — Crossing the Divide. — Thunder- and 
Snow-Storras. — The Pines. — Bierstadt and the Colorado Eocks. 
— Storm-staid at "The Dirty Woman's Kanch." — A Western 
Cabin. — A Pleasant and Hospitable Hostess. — A Bright Fire 
and Excellent Supper. — The Guests chat away the Evening. — 
The "Garden of the Gods." — Grandeur of the Monuments. — 
Natural Pillars from Three to Five Hundred Feet High.— They 
appear like Kuins of Colossal Statuary. — The Mineral Springs. 
— Camp Creek Cafion. — A Severe Snow-Storm.-r-Vain Attempt 
to procure Shelter from a Fugitive Mormoness. — Petrifactions 
on the Platte. 

Denver, May 26, 1867. 
Thursday, the 23d, trunks packed, bills paid. Coach 
drove up at seven for Salt Lake, and we were all at the door, 
expecting to bid farewell to Colorado and its beautiful 
mountains, possibly forever. Agent comes along, and in- 
forms us we can only go to Fort Saunders, one hundred and 
thirty miles, and will have to remain there over Sunday, 
on account of the great accumulation of mails caused by 
the Indians stealing Wells, Fargo & Co.'s horses. " Uncle 
Sam" makes the drivers take an oath that they will see 
the mails through safe, giving the passengers the widest 
liberty of looking out for themselves in case of attacks 

* This letter was written by Mrs. McClure to a friend, who fur- 
nished it for publication in the Chambersburg " Kepository." As it 
gives an account of a very interesting portion of Colorado that I 
did not see, and as the letter has already been given to the public, 
I embrace it in this collection of letters, to complete the description 
of the many points of peculiar interest on the overland route. 
(lU) 



CROSSING THE DIVIDE. 115 

from the noble red men, danger from high waters, or any 
of the other difficulties which are liable to beset one's path 
on a journey "Across the Continent." Much disappointed, 
we had our baggage moved again to our rooms, and I at 
once made up my mind to see Colorado's greatest wonders, 
<'The Monuments," " Soda Springs," and the magnificent 
rocks called by the pretentious name of the " Garden of 
the Gods." 

Hired a livery "turn-out," with a boy driver, and, with 
W. and Mrs. C. for companions, was on the road to the 
classical ground in less than an hour. The weather was 
not promising, and the mountains, especially the Snowy 
Range, were hidden from sight by clouds threatening and 
sullen in aspect. We had not proceeded far when rain set 
in. The road was generally fine across the plain, with a 
gradual ascent of fifty or sixty miles to the Divide, a high 
piece of ground separating the head-Avaters of the Arkansas 
from those of the Platte, and famous for its thunder- and 
snow-storms, both of which we encountered. The country is 
diversified with groves of beautiful spruce pines, so refresh- 
ing to an Eastern eye after the long stretches of treeless 
prairie on the Platte ; and the hills on each side are full of 
white sandstone rocks, in broken, irregular lines, looking 
precisely like ruins of Hindoo or Egyptian temples, with 
their broken arches, columns, porticos, and overhanging 
towers in endless confusion. Bierstadt, it is said, made 
some beautiful drawings of these rocks, but refused to 
paint them, giving as his reason that few people Avould be- 
lieve they were real rocks of this continent, and would say 
he had taken some foreign ruins and tried to palm them off 
on the public as specimens of Colorado rock-scenery. Since 
seeing them, I am not surprised at his conclusion. 

The distance from Denver to Colorado City is seventy 
miles. We drove fifty by six o'clock; the last twelve 



116 A WESTERN CABIN. 

through a furious thunder-storm. Jove hurled his bolts 
around us in a manner terrifying to mortal ears, and the 
winds were not gentle breezes, but blew what a sailor 
would call "great guns," the carriage rocking at times in 
the blast. There are three ranches on the road, known 
by the euphonious names of the " Red-Headed Woman's 
Ranch," " Pretty Woman's Ranch," and the '' Dirty Wo- 
man's Ranch." After a most tedious and anxious drive, 
we arrived at the last-named, so called from the untidy 
person and habits of the divinity who once presided over it, 
and who, as the legend runs, finally died of dirt. The place 
was not inviting; but, as the gods seemed determined not 
to be propitious, we concluded any sort of shelter was 
preferable to a farther drive in the pelting storm with a 
tired team. The house was a low one-story hut, divided 
into four small rooms, devoid of almost all comfort. One 
ordinary-sized pane of glass constituted the window in the 
"room," as it was called. The furniture consisted of a 
round pine table, covered with an old white muslin cloth ; 
three chairs (one wooden, one split-bottom, and one with 
seat composed of strips of calf- or cow-skin plaited across), 
a small looking-glass, half broken away, the remainder, 
from familiar marks upon it, looking as if it had not seen 
water since the previous summer, and indicating clearly 
that the flies Avere the sole possessors and the only vain 
members of the family; a small trough, in which was a 
wooden bucket with ladle; a tin wash-basin; and on a 
nail opposite hung a homespun towel. The walls were 
papered with " Harper's Weekly," leaves from the "Atlantic 
Monthly," etc., which served us for reading-matter for a half- 
hour or so, and struck us as "useful as well as ornamental." 
The sole occupant was a little girl, five or six years of age, 
who sat shivering over a scanty fire in a cook-stove in the 
kitchen. On inquiry for the mistress, she informed us she 



A BRIGHT FIRE AND EXCELLENT SUPPER. H^ 

was milking". She soon made her appearance; a tall, 
pleasant-faced woman, with a pair of beautiful brown eyes. 
I knew at a glance that a kind heart had written the lines so 
easily read there, and, in spite of ill health, advancing age, 
and poverty, they had maintained their sway. She made 
many apologies for her rude home, but said she would 
make us as comfortable as possible. In a few minutes 
pine chunks and sticks were placed endways (no andirons) 
in the rudely-built chimney, and soon a roaring fire lighted 
up the bare walls and floor with a glow peculiarly its own. 
We were soon cosey and comfortable, drying our clothes 
and wondering what the '' folks at home" would say could 
they take a peep at our experience of frontier life. In a 
little time supper was announced. As we had only lunched 
instead of dined that day, we did ample justice to the fare, 
which was excellent, — much better than we had expected 
from the appearance of the hovel. Delicious soda-biscuit, 
poached eggs, ham, honey, coffee, butter, and cream, consti- 
tuted the bill of fare. The pasture is so fine that butter and 
milk are unusually good — much better than we had tasted 
since leaving home. The dining-room furniture consisted 
of an old pine sideboard, and a long table with a bench on 
each side for seats. One pane of glass served for a window. 
Two storm-beaten travelers of the bifurcated species were 
added to our part}^, — one an old frontiersman from the San 
Luis Yalley, an eighteen-year resident of the co.untry. After 
supper, " we formed around the ingle' a circle wide," the 
old pioneer leading in the conversation, giving us many 
interesting accounts of the settling of the Territor}^ and of 
the Indians. The latter he hates most intensely, and, like 
all the other settlers, thinks Chivington and Conner the 
only two men who can keep the Indians at peace with the 
white men. We each chatted our favorite hobby ; mine, 
of course, was border-warfare in the nineteenth century, and 

11* 



118 THE '^ GARDEN OF TUE GODSr 

our experience with the chivahy. About nine o'clock our 
hostess made her appearance with a tallow candle, in the 
most primitive of tin candlesticks, and offered to show us 
to bed. Bidding " good-night" to the pioneer who had 
entertained us so pleasantly, we followed the "brown 
eyes." Our room — about six by ten or twelve, no win- 
dow, not even a crevice for fresh air — looked like a huge 
store-box. In this were two clean-looking beds, with just 
room for one to stand between them. The bedsteads con- 
sisted of two posts or pine logs fastened in each side of 
the wall, and the beds were made on them. The only fur- 
niture was a small stool on which to set the candle. After 
retiring, being really very comfortable, we were soon made 
oblivious by "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," 
and did not wake until called to breakfast. 

After that very important meal, we paid our bill ($10), 
hitched up our horses, found them gay as ourselves after 
the night's rest, bade good-by to our kind hostess and the 
guests (the old pioneer hoping "it would burn out" — 
meaning clear off — before we had gone far), and started for 
the remaining drive of twenty miles. The clouds were 
threatening, and in a little time poured torrents of rain 
upon us. The mountains were completely veiled in the 
mist ; had it not been for the sandstone rocks in their pic- 
turesque ruin the ride would have been a dreary one. 
We passed Monument Creek, eight miles this side of Colo- 
rado City, in the fain, and concluded to visit it on our 
return. As we approached the " Garden of the Gods," 
the clouds lifted a little, and the sun gave us a few dreary 
smiles as we entered. And such an entrance ! Here my 
pen fails to give any correct idea of the grandeur of the 
rocks. On either side towers a sandstone rock of bright 
brick color, from three to five hundred feet in height, and 
seventy-five to a hundred or more in length ; at a little dis- 



THE ^nXERAL SPRINGS. 119 

tance in front, directly in the pathway, stands another, of 
grotesque form, looking like some colossal sentinel placed 
there to guard the sacred inclosure. After passing his 
majesty, numbers of these bright-red rocks meet the eye 
on every side, looking like ruins of colossal statuary, 
their sides marked and seamed with the snows and rains of 
ages. We spent an hour wandering among these stupen- 
dous monuments of the Creator's power, gathered a few 
wild flowers, broke some pieces of rock, to take with us 
as souvenirs, looked again and again, and could scarcely 
tear ourselves away. But the clouds gave ominous signs, 
and, with many regrets, we took our seats in the carriage 
and finished our drive of one and a half miles to Colorado 
City. 

Here our patience was sorely tried. The hotel had 
changed proprietors, the new one having moved the day 
before, and everything was " confusion worse confounded." 
The Soda Springs, three miles north, being the next on 
the list of curiosities, we hoped after dinner to be able to 
drive there and spend the afternoon; but it rained inces- 
santly, and we were obliged to give it up for that day. 
Retired early, and, in spite of bedbugs and other luxuries 
too numerous to mention, slept soundly. By our own re- 
quest, we were called at half-past five. The sun had just 
risen over the mountains, lighting up the snowy crest of 
Pike's Peak (fifteen miles away) with the rosiest hues, lift-^ 
ing the vapory clouds from the foot-hills and the middle 
range and sending them in myriads of graceful forms up the 
mountain-sides, striking the immense white and red sand- 
stone rocks near the " Garden of the Gods," and making alto- 
gether a most gorgeous and never-to-be-forgotten picture. 
These beautiful red rocks extended along most of our way 
to the springs. One in particular attracted us from its 
resemblance to the pictures we see of the Coliseum. The 



120 CAMP CREEK CANON. 

springs are three in number, and bubble up out of the 
ground in the merriest way, emptying into the " fontaine 
qui bouille" (boiling fountain), named, I suppose, from the 
swiftness of the current and the noise it makes in rushing 
over the rocks and pebbles in its bed. The water is very 
strongly impregnated with soda, and with lemon or other 
syrups makes a most delicious drink. The water, as it 
runs from the springs into the stream, deposits a calca- 
reous tufa, white and in waves, looking almost like snow- 
drifts. I should have been glad to bring away specimens, 
but had not room in my valise. There are no fish in the 
''fontaine qui bouille;" they don't like the soda-water, it 
is said, although the stream looks like our trout streams. 
Near one of the soda springs is a small iron spring; and 
doubtless when the place is prospected, as it will be, there 
will be other springs found of valuable medicinal proper- 
ties. Many persons visit these springs now for rheuma- 
tism, scrofula, etc., and are always much benefited. A 
hotel is talked of; and, should it be built, the place will be 
very attractive. We had an hour there, and then the clouds 
gathered. 

We drove home through the ''Garden of the Gods;" 
stopped at Camp Creek Canon to see the rocks there, and 
found them equal in grandeur to their brothers. I slipped 
into the creek and got my feet wet. We rode eight miles 
to Monument Creek ; raining and very disagreeable. Here 
we found a still more wonderful rock-formation. At a little 
distance some groups, hidden as they are by pine-trees, 
look like a huge cemetery, the rocks running up in columns 
land single shafts from six to fifty feet in height; others 
look precisely like groups of Shakers in capes and broad 
brims. By moonlight they must have a weird, wild look ; 
and one could imagine them the ghosts of giantesses sent 
back to hold some special conclave on material subjects. 



PETRIFACTIONS ON THE PLATTE. 121 

Our ride home was through one of the most severe snow- 
storms I have ever been in. Once the road was so drifted 
that we were fearful we had missed it and were driving at 
random on the prairies. The snow blew in our faces, 
covering the blankets to the depth of three or four inches. 
A hut looming in sight, we drove to it. Such squalor and 
poverty I never saw before, and hope I shall never see 
again. The hut was floorless, and leaking in every part; the 
children were put to bed to keep warm, and I really be- 
lieve the mother was insane. She had a wild look about 
the eyes, and her dress was very eccentric. She had run 
away from the Mormons, and had been in this hut only 
four days; the storm coming on, she could not look for 
food, work, or anything else. I was heart-sick, and de- 
termined that a night on the plains was preferable to staying 
there. Finding we were not lost yet, and hoping to be 
able to keep the road, I slipped some money in her hand, 
and started again in the frightful storm. We reached 
Denver at half-past four o'clock, wet to the skin and per- 
fectly benumbed with cold, and did not have an ache or 
pain after. One peculiarity of this climate is, that, however 
drenched and cold you may be, you rarely ever suffer from 
it, particularly if you have flannel next the skin. The 
snow was two feet deep in the mountains. 

This is Sunday. I have been interrupted all the time ; 
and, as we expect to leave for Salt Lake to-morrow morn- 
ing, have concluded to finish to-day. Yesterday I spent the 
day on the banks of the Platte, sixteen and a half miles 
from here, in search of petrified fish and other curiosities. 
I saw fish almost a foot long imbedded in the rocks, with 
a pearly case around them, which on exposure to the sun 
reflects all the colors of the rainbow. They are, however, 
so brittle that we could only get pieces of them. The 
specimens of petrified wood are beautiful. I will have 
quite a nice cabinet if all reach home in good condition. 



LETTER XIIL 

Storm-bound in Denver. — An Old-fashioned Eastern Settled 
Kain. — The "Oldest Inhabitant" cannot explain it. — Eapid 
Kise of the Mountain-Streams. — The Stage stopped by the 
riood. — Peril of Passengers in crossing a Little Stream. — 
Prospects of Indian Kaids. — No "Priendlies" visible but the 
Utes. — The Pirst Settlers of Colorado. — Legislation to defeat 
Foreign Creditors. — Summary Execution of Part of Quantrell's 
Band. — Agricultural Productions of Colorado. 

Denver, Colorado, June 1, 1867. 
Still in Colorado. The snow-clad ranges of the Rocky 
Mountains, which awakened such enthusiasm when I first 
beheld them, have become common and' uninteresting in 
my anxiety to get out from this Indian and weather im- 
prisonment. Think of it, in this usually sun-parched land, 
where vegetation gasps for the artificial stream and withers 
in its absence — a regular storm of eight days' duration. 
Just a regular, old-fashioned. Eastern settled rain, much to 
the surprise of the oldest inhabitant, and defying all the 
weather-wise of the city to explain the order of its coming. 
And what was rain in Denver was snow and rain on the 
first and second ranges, and a regular driving winter snow- 
storm^on the Snowy Range. Bat gradually the frosty breath 
of winter reached out from the mountains to the plains, 
until it chilled the storm eastward two hundred miles, and 
robed the eastern prairies in spotless white. Just as we 
were about to enter the threshold of summer. Old Winter 
crowned himself in his proudest attire, and bade the blos- 
soms and verdure of the plains and mountain-forests wait 
(122) 



RAPID RISE OF MOUNTAIN-STREAMS. 123 

for a more convenient season. For eight days the sun did 
not appear. At times the clouds would lift up along the 
mountains and give us the faint promise of a ray of sun- 
shine ; but soon the storm-king would assert his imperious 
sway again, and the flitting snow-storm would frolic with 
the mountain-peaks, hurled hither and thither in fantastic 
forms and flights, while the lightning kissed the plains 
and rocked them with its thunders. 

In this country, where the mountains shed the rains and 
melting snows so speedily, the streams rise and fall with 
marvelous rapidity. The road to Salt Lake was utterly 
impassable for several daj^s, and is now unfit to be traveled. 
The little rivulets, which are dry most of the time, and 
usually can be stepped without wetting the feet, rose from 
ten to fifteen feet in a few hours, when the temperature 
moderated so as to turn the falling snow to rain and add 
the melting snow to the current of the water. The rude 
bridges were swept away, and the coaches were brought 
to a stand. One coach coming in from the west was 
swept down the stream in Thompson's Creek, the lead- 
horses drowned, the stage whirled over by the resistless 
current, and the passengers saved only after almost super- 
human efforts to get out of a stream but twenty feet in 
width. But they fall as rapidly as they rise, and in three 
days of good weather the results of an eight days' storm 
will scarcely be perceptible on the -roads. To-day the sun 
dawned upon us almost without a cloud to shadow his 
splendor, and by Monday we hope to start for Salt Lake 
with a reasonable prospect of a safe and pleasant journey. 
Truer, the Indians may return with the return of good 
weather ; but that is a chance all travelers on the Plains 
must take, and they do it without borrowing trouble on 
account of it. It is not doubted by the oldest settlers, 
who understand the habits and can judge of the temper of 



124 THE FIRST SETTLERS OF COLORADO. 

the Indians, that there will he a general onthreak in some 
portion of the overland ronte as soon as the Indians have 
stolen enough horses to mount their warriors and the 
grass is sufficiently grown to sustain their stock on the 
march. Just where they will strike, no one pretends to 
guess, as they can assail the great line of travel anywhere 
for six hundred miles with equal facility. Among the 
many signs of a general Indian outbreak, the most signifi- 
cant is the entire absence of friendly Indians on the line. 
When they are at peace, they crowd around the stations 
and ranches with their squaws and papooses, l)egging and 
stealing everything they can get; but this spring I did 
not see an Indian on the road from the Missouri to Denver. 
Here the Utes wander through the streets daily; but they 
are now, and ever have been, peaceable. 

The histor}^ of the peopling of a new Territory like 
Colorado is a most interesting study. It had no tide of 
emigration until rich gold diggings had been discovered, 
and nine-tenths of those who came at first were either 
fugitives or adventurers. In one mingled mass came the 
honest bankrupt, the fugitive from justice, the gambler, 
and the loafer, all trusting to some new turn in the capri- 
cious smiles of fortune. One of the first acts of the Terri- 
torial legislature prohibited the collection of claims against 
any of the residents of Colorado, for the benefit of non- 
resident creditors, for the period of five years ; and no one 
was brave enough to test the infamy and impotency of the 
statute in the courts. It would have been just worth an 
attorney's life, in the early days of Colorado, to have at- 
tempted the collection of foreign claims by process ; and 
none dared to do it. In such a mass of reckless residents, 
of course the desperate soon gained the mastery, and mur- 
ders were of such frequent occurrence, without any pretense 
of justice, that finally the Vigilance Committee was forced 



EXECUTION OF FART OF QUANTRELUS BAXD. 125 

into existence, and executed thieves and murderers and 
gamblers relentlessly, until they were either driven away 
or subordinated to the safety of society. 

But, while the Vigilance Committee has served its pur- 
pose and disbanded, it has left its impress indelibly stamped 
upon the character of the settlers. There remains a reck- 
lessness of life that would appall any old settlement in the 
East. If a bad man is discovered in any of the mining 
regions, the law is considered too slow and too doubtful 
in the administration of justice. After the sacking of Law- 
rence, Kansas, by Quantrell, thirty-one of his gang came 
to Colorado in a body, and scattered through the Territory. 
Numerous thefts and several murders followed, and they 
were charged — justly, I believe — to these rebel desperadoes. 
The miners at once organized parties and commenced a 
hunt for them. They were overtaken several times, several 
killed each time, and jBnally all the survivors were cap- 
tured, with a single exception. Their captors returned, but 
they were without prisoners, and the explanation given was 
that they had tied the prisoners to a tree and they had 
killed themselves pulling at the ropes to get away. No 
inquiry was made by any one beyond ascertaining the fact 
that there would be no more disturbances by QuantrelPs 
men. Gradually, however, the majesty of the law is gain- 
ing ground in every part of the Territory, and the suprem- 
acy of order will be maintained by all classes. 

When Colorado shall have recovered from the terrible 
incubus of bankrupt corporations, now holding the most 
valuable mines without the ability to develop them suc- 
cessfully, her destiny must be a great and prosperous one. 
There are no insuperable barriers to the growth of all the 
cereals, fruits, vegetables, etc. of the Eastern States, and 
some of them are produced in matchless perfection. With 
the climate and soil to produce bread and every kind of 

12 



126 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF COLORADO. 

food for treble the population of Pennsylvania, and with 
the boundless mineral wealth of her mountains, Colorado 
must some day become one of the mightiest and wealthiest 
commonwealths of the Union. 

But again I bid adieu to Colorado, and hope next to 
write you from the now green pastures and fragrant flowers 
of the Saints, six hundred miles farther toward the setting 
sun. 



LETTER XIY. 

Off from Denver. — The Party. — Our Arms. — Indians in Front 
and Kear. — Swollen Streams. — Crossing Boulder. — Virginia 
Dale. — The Savages uncomfortably Close. — Prospect of a 
Brush. — Passing the Black Hills. — Tactics of the Indians. — 
When they attack. — Arrival at Cooper's Creek. — The Stage- 
Horses stolen by the Indians. — The Policy of the Military. — 
An Escort of Three Troopers. — Port Halleck. — Elk Mountain. 
— Kunning the Gauntlet of an Indian Camp. — The Driver and 
his Strategy. — A Hasty Drive. — North Platte. — The Indians on 
the "War-Path ahead. — A Council of War. — A Forward Move- 
ment decided on. — A Bright but Deceptive Morning. — The 
First Station abandoned, and the Second burning. — A Sober 
Dinner-Party at Pine Grove. — A Pitiless Snow-Storm. — The 
Station burning on the Summit of the Eocky Range. — Our 
Situation most critical. — "Big Dick." — Fresh Tracks, and a 
Line of Battle necessary. — Dick's Disposal of the Lad3^ — The 
"Cusses" overtaken. — A Mutual Eetreat. — Firing forbidden by 
Dick. — Arrival at Sulphur Spring. — The Horses captured there 
the same Day. — The Battle the Day before. — A Melancholy 
Stage-Drive. — Captain "Wilson's Apology to General Sherman. 
— The Accommodations. — The Alarm. — Westward again. 

Sulphur Spring Station, 
EocKY Mountains, June 7, 1867. 

On the 3d instant we bade good-by to Denver, but not 
without serious misgivings as to our success in getting 
through the favorite retreats of the "friendlies," as the 
Indians are termed by the Western people. Our party con- 
sisted of seven, all going clear through, — viz., Mr. Perry, 
of Missouri, an old freighter of fifteen years' experience, 
intelligent, and brave as he is unassuming ; Dr. Cass, of 

(127) 



128 SWOLLEN STREAMS. 

Denver, who had crossed the Plains over a dozen times ; 
Mr. Phelps, of New York, who was making his third trip; 
and our Pennsylvania party, consisting of McKibben, Mrs. 
McC, W., and myself. We were all well armed — had 
three repeating rifles, three of the best breech-loaders, and 
from one to two first-class revolvers each. Had the eastern 
route been safe, we would all have willingly retraced our 
steps to the Missouri River and proceeded to Montana by 
boat, and taken the chances to return overland in the fall ; 
but the Indians seemed to be more numerous and quite 
as hostile and savage on the Platte and Smoky Hill routes 
from Denver to the Missouri, as on the route to Salt Lake. 
We were thus between two Indian fires, as it were, and 
without apparent choice as to safety : so we finally resolved 
that we would go through the mountains, and take the 
chances of coming out with whole scalps. Our route once 
determined upon, the greatest obstacle was removed ; and, 
after many ominous shakes of the head by friends, and 
much cheap advice, as they bade us farewell, we started out 
on as bright a morning as the East could have furnished. 

The streams were still high from the recent storms, and 
we apprehended some trouble with them for the first hun- 
dred and fifty miles ; but, as we supposed so much of the 
road to be clear of the Indians, we did not complain of 
extra jolts, or frequent walks up hills and over deep mud- 
holes. We considered a stick in the mud, an upset, a walk 
or wade through a rebellious stream, or anything of that 
sort, a luxury, if not mixed up with the war-whoop of the 
son of the forest. When we came to Boulder, a stream 
that ordinarih^ can be stepped over in the dr}^ season, it 
had appropriated several acres of contiguous territory, and 
made bogs which would have swallowed up the team, 
coach, driver, passengers, and baggage. Fortunately, it 
ran through an agricultural settlement, and there was a 



VIRGINIA DALE. 129 

fence across it, made of pine poles, neither trimmed nor 
barked, and the gentlemen passengers were invited to 
walk the pole fence for a distance of forty rods. We 
strung out on it, and crawled or climbed along, sometimes 
walking, at other times creeping, now astride, and again 
hanging on to the side, or calling to our aid the profoundest 
strategy to flank a rough, knotty post, until the boisterous 
mountain Rubicon Avas passed. Most of us came out with 
numerous scratches on the hands and various unpoetical 
rents in our breeches; but as they were invisible under 
ordinary circumstances, and as none of us have had any of 
our clothing off as yet, since we started, but our hats, we 
have not taken a careful account of damages. When we 
get to the land of the Saints, — if we ever do, — we may have 
time to look up the necessary improvements in our gar- 
ments. 

Excepting an occasional tussle with a creek or a bog, 
we got along quite well until we reached Virginia Dale 
the next morning, about ten o'clock, for breakfast. We had 
made ninety-nine miles in a little more than twenty-four 
hours, and were congratulating ourselves that a week 
might land us among the long-wished-for Mormons. At 
Virginia Dale we had an excellent breakfast of antelope- 
steak, with fresh Qgg ^ and fine potatoes and coffee ; but 
they would hash up the Indian with it. The first news 
we heard vfas that the Indians had just cleaned the place 
of a mule-team, and that the Black Hills, just beyond on 
our route, were full of Indians — their spies having been 
seen for several days, and their signals at night. The 
Black Hills are a series of spurs from the Rocky Range, 
and are a wild confusion of rude bluffs and ravines, with 
interminable windings and occasional thickets of stunted 
growth — all peculiarly adapted to Indian attacks. The 
landlord at the station, and the drivers, agreed that we 

12* 



130 PASSING THE BLACK HILLS. 

stood a fair chance for a brush with the Indians, and they 
posted us as fully as possible as to the proper precautions 
and best system of defense. We had expected when we 
started from Denver to find Indians some sixty miles 
ahead, from Cooper's Creek to the North Platte, as they 
had been operating on that line but a short time before ; 
but here we had the savage on our path at least a day 
before we had contracted for his society. There was but 
one remedy, however ; and that was, to go ahead, keeping 
our heads steady and our powder dry. 

We passed the Black Hills in safety, notwithstanding 
the alarming prophecies of our Virginia Dale friends ; but 
we allowed the Indians no particular chances on us that 
we could prevent. We sent out a skirmish-line at every 
dangerous pass or bluff, and exercised every possible cau- 
tion. Our guns were never out of our hands. When 
sleeping, they were kept loaded and resting on our knees, 
with the muzzles projecting a little out at the sides of the 
coach ; and when eating, they were stacked within reach. 
The tactics of the Indians is ever to surprise and confuse 
travelers or soldiers by their fiendish war-whoop ; and if 
they fail in their attempted surprise they will flee from 
one-fourth their number of resolute men. At Big Laramie 
we had dinner about four in the afternoon, and there 
learned that the Indians were along the line, swooping 
down upon stock wherever an opportunity presented, and 
scalping the herders. During the evening we had a 
pleasant road to go over, free of bluffs and ravines, and 
night came before we had reached any localities where 
Indians could conceal themselves. It is a remarkable fact 
that the Indians always select either evening or morning, 
just after sunset or before sunrise, to attack, when they 
can ; and they will rarely attack at night. They do not 
attack at night, because they never risk the danger of 



STA GE- HORSES STOLEN B Y THE INDIA NS. 131 

meeting unexpected numbers ; and they select evening and 
morning, because travelers are generally weary in the 
evening, and in the morning they are drowsy or sleeping. 
They never attack a train or a coach without first accurately 
counting every man and gun in the party. This they can 
do from the bluffs during the day, and then follow up the 
party or signal to others of their band on the line ahead. 

About three in the morning we reached Cooper's Creek, 
and found no horses to take us on. The Indians had 
captured the stock but a few days before, scalped one of 
the herders, and there would be no team for us until the 
coach arrived from the west and the horses had been 
rested and fed. As usual, there was but one rude bed in 
the shanty, and that was occupied by the station-keeper, 
his wife, and two children. He was gallant enough, 
however, to give his share of the bed to Mrs. McC, and 
the rest of us formed a circle around the stove, rolled our- 
selves up in our robes and blankets on the ground-floor, 
and soon were sound asleep. At seven we were waked 
for breakfast, and had a good "square meal" on elk-steak 
and potatoes. J^o western coach having arrived, we 
started on with our old team about eleven o'clock, and 
had a cavalry escort of three men to protect us. Colonel 
Mizner, of Fort Saunders, is charged with the protection 
of the route from Denver to Fort Bridger, a distance of 
five hundred miles, and has to protect a corps of railroad 
engineers in addition. To do this, he has sixty cavalry 
and sixty infantry — just about enough to protect twenty 
miles of the road. He has appealed for an additional 
force ; but the authorities are still waiting to see whether we 
are to have war or not, and they leave the whole overland 
route unprotected, to tempt Indians to steal and murder, 
while the problem of war or peace is being solved. The 
management of the Indian war, with ample troops to pro- 



132 ELK 3I0UNTAIN. 

tect the route perfectly, would disgrace a corporal ; and the 
sooner the policy is changed upon the Plains, the sooner 
will wanton murders and robberies and the wasteful ex- 
penditure of millions of money cease. 

From Cooper's Creek to the North Platte, a distance of 
sixty miles, was regarded as the only really dangerous 
part of our route ; and as three troopers accompanied us 
all the way, changing at the stations, we felt tolerably 
comfortable. We found an infantry guard of six at each 
station, and Rock Creek, Medicine Bow, and Wagonhound 
stations had all protected their stock for several days, 
although occasionally attacked. At Elk Mountain (Old 
Fort Halleck) we found a serious condition of affairs. The 
Indians were encamped but a few miles over the bluff, in 
strong force ; they had stolen the horses the evening before, 
and an attack to destroy the station was hourly expected. 
The most dreary place on the entire route was Elk Moun- 
tain. The fort has been abandoned, and its buildings are 
crumbling to ruins. Close by is Elk Mountain, covered 
with snow. On the opposite side are wild, irregular cliffs, 
with frequent ravines, and ahead is a narrow caiion for 
miles, with a dozen chances for Indian ambuscades in 
every mile. Near the station is a burial-ground, where, 
for a number of years, the emigrant or the settler who 
yielded up his life to the savage was brought for a rest- 
ing-place. I noticed some thirty graves ; and the rude in- 
scriptions told how merciless is the hand of the red man 
in his warfare against the encroachment of the whites. 

As the Indian camp was ahead on our route, and but a 
short distance from the road over the cliffs, we regarded an 
attack as more than probable. The soldiers assured us 
that we could not expect to escape it ; and our escort 
started out with us fully satisfied that they would have a 
brush before they got three miles away. They behaved 



A HASTY DRIVE. 133 

most manfully. Never were saddles and trappings put on 
with greater care, arms were all carefully examined, and, 
although it was very cold, they took with them nothing 
that could embarrass them in a fight. Our driver was a 
regular Western "brick." He said but little, but always 
to the point, whistled merrily while he looked to the 
charges of his rifle and pistols, and took an extra quid of 
tobacco as he mounted his box with the dignity of an 
emperor. In the quaintest Western vernacular, he told us 
how to act in case of an attack, in the mean time whirling 
his long whip mechanically over his head; and at the end 
of every direction on any particular point he would add, 
with an extra jerk of his whip, "But never scar'; never 
scar' — they're lightnin' when you scar'!" It was nearly 
sunset, just the favorite time for Indian attacks, as we 
passed through the canon, and everything seemed just 
'then and there to conspire to make an attack inevitable. 
Ever}^ gun was put in position, with muzzle projecting 
from the coach so as to be visible, and, when all was ready, 
the driver's long lash was flung out as only a Western 
driver can fling it, and we dashed into the ravine at full 
gallop. There were occasional ruts and bogs, but the 
sharp report of the whip told both team and passengers 
that we had not time to slacken our speed for such trifles. 
Occasionally, as the front wheels would plunge into a 
deep water-course, the middle and hind passengers would 
land in most ungraceful attitudes on the laps of the front 
ones, and as the hind wheels would drop in, the whole 
load would sweep back in a pile on the back seat; but 
soon all would be right again, and on we whirled, until 
darkness and an open country gave reasonable assurance 
of safety. 

We reached the North Platte about three in the morn 
ing, in the midbt of a drenching rain ; but, as we supposed 



134 ^ COUNCIL OF WAR. 

it to be the end of our Indian troubles, we welcomed any- 
thing and every sort of weather that put us there. Judge 
of our surprise when told that the Indians had just broken 
out on the road for fifty miles west, that there was not an 
occupied station on the line, that a number of station-men 
and emigrants had been killed within a few days, and that 
all travel was suspended ! How long we should have to 
stay, no one pretended to say. " The line cannot be run 
any longer without troops," was the reply of the agent; 
and, as there were no troops within four hundred miles, the 
prospect was by no means flattering. We had by this 
time, however, learned not to borrow trouble on any ac- 
count ; and we concluded to turn in for a sleep and talk 
about traveling in the morning. Here, as usual, there was 
but a single bed in the ranch, and that was a pile of straw 
on two poles fastened into the wall. Mrs. M. was favored 
with a place on the soft side of the floor near the cooking- 
stove, and the rest of us took the dining-room, where, by 
lying on, under, and all around the table, we managed to 
find room for a snooze. * Our beds consisted of our robes 
and blankets, with our carpet-bags for pillows ; but never 
did anybody sleep more soundly. The stage that had pre- 
ceded us from Denver was stopped at the Platte also : so 
that there were eleven passengers there. 

After a hearty breakfast on elk-steak, we held a council 
of war and transportation, and found that all were well 
armed but two itinerant speculators of the Hebrew faith. 
We resolved unanimously that they must arm themselves, 
if arms were to be had, and a committee soon after re- 
ported that arms could be had at a ranch a mile distant. 
They sullenly obeyed, at last, by purchasing two old mus- 
kets at fifteen dollars each (worth about two dollars and a 
half), and twenty rounds of ammunition. There were two 
broken-down teams at the station, and the agent of the 



AT PINE GROVE. 135 

division (Mr. Stewart, of Indiana, Pennsylvania) proposed 
to go through the Indian break with two mud-wagons, if 
the passengers would go along and stand together in case 
of an attack. All promptly assented. Mr. Stewart for 
some time refused to allow Mrs. M. to go ; but she insisted 
that the party must not be stopped on her account, and 
declared herself perfectly willing to share the fortune of 
the rest. Finally, we made up seats in the wagons out of 
mail-bags and trunks, and started on a journey of fifty 
miles through a region where the Indians had driven 
every man and horse away. It was a pleasant morning, 
and we had the promise of a delightful day to cross the 
summit of Bridger's Pass on the Rocky Range ; but how 
deceptive were all such indications the sequel will show. 
The first station (Sage Creek) we reached was not dis- 
turbed ; but when we came to the top of the hill, near the 
second station (Pine Grove), it was in ruins, and the re- 
mains still burning. The thicket close to it was an ad- 
mirable retreat for Indians, and we stopped and surrounded 
it with a skirmish-line, but found no foe there. We then 
drove by to a hill beyond, where we stopped to lunch and 
feed the jaded horses. The Indians had captured the stock 
the day before, and the station-men had escaped at night. 
A large brindled dog first told of the presence of the sav- 
ages, after the stock had been stolen, by coming in with 
three arrows sticking in his body; and when they de- 
stro3''ed the station they vented their spite on the dog by 
running a pitchfork through him, and pinioning him where 
his head was burnt entirely off. The literature of the 
station was scattered around the ruins. Our driver picked 
up a book that the Indians had flung out on the road, and, 
after turning it over several times to be sure that he had 
it right side up, he said it was called " Triumphs." After 
another prodigious effort at spelling, he said it was by 



136 OUR SITUATION MOST CRITICAL. 

Curtis. It turned out to be a copy of Curtis's " Trumps," 
and was given Mrs. M. as a relic of Pine Creek Station. 

Before we left Pine Creek, a heavy rain set in, and we 
lunched under our wagons on our robes. It was a dreary 
day for all. We had twenty-five miles to go to reach Sul- 
phur Spring Station, our teams were exhausted, and there 
was neither shelter nor food on the route, while every hour 
we were exposed to attacks from the savages. We got 
down on the bottom of the wagon-beds, and covered our- 
selves, all but our heads, with our blankets. The storm was 
extremely cold, and before we had gone two miles it turned 
into snow, accompanied by a pitiless northwestern gale. 
The snow blew into our faces and froze stiff on our 
whiskers and clothes. If we could have covered ourselves 
entirely, we might have been comparatively comfortable ; 
but every man had to keep his rifle dry and in constant 
readiness, and a sharp lookout for the Indians. As we 
ascended the summit of the pass, we saw abundant evi- 
dences of the presence of the savages. At one place two 
wagons were standing, and their contents scattered on the 
bluffs on either side. They had evidently been captured 
the day before, the horses taken and the goods destroyed. 
When we reached the summit, we saw the Bridger's Pass 
Station in flames. It has an open country for a mile around 
it: so we could see that the savages had gone; and we 
drove down to it without delay. It had evidently been 
fired but a few hours before, as it was still burning and the 
tracks of the Indians in the snow were fresh. We got out 
and warmed ourselves by the fire, while the fierce snow- 
storm raged with fury around us. Our situation was now 
manifestly most critical. The tracks of the ponies showed 
that the Indians had gone toward Sulphur Spring, the 
place we were striving to reach, and it seemed more than 
probable that they would destroy that place before we 



'^BiG dick:' I3t 

could reach it. If so, we would be left on the top of the 
Rocky Range, without food or shelter, in a terrible snow- 
storm, with teams unable to travel, and surrounded by the 
fiends of the Plains. It was a sad prospect; but every one 
seemed animated with the resolve to yield only when it 
was no longer possible to save ourselves. We determined 
to proceed after the Indians, if possible reach Sulphur 
Spring, fifteen miles distant, and there stop whether the 
station was destroyed or not. *'Big Dick" was our mas- 
ter-driver — that is, the two teams were under his direction ; 
and he was fully equal to the task. He stood six feet three 
in his stockings, had a giant frame, had been educated on 
the driver's boot, in the stable, and among the Indians, 
and he was perfectly familiar with their habits. He seemed 
insensible to fear, and insisted that our party could make 
Sulphur in spite of all the red devils this side of the hottest 
place he could name. He also seemed almost insensible 
to the terrible storm that was raging, and faced its cruel 
blasts as he would the gentle, balmy breeze of spring. 
After warming ourselves thoroughly around the burning 
station, we got in again to start on our journey. It was 
then nearly night, our teams were entirely worn out, and 
on any sort of a hill we had to stop every five minutes to 
let them rest. About five miles from the station, Dick 
pulled up, and said, "Fresh pony-tracks, gentlemen — lots 
of 'em — ^they're not half a mile ahead of us." The snow 
and the moon made it tolerably light, and the tracks were 
plainly visible as just fresh, when closely examined. At 
the word, a dozen men jumped out from under the blankets 
and robes, with guns in hands, and a brief council was 
held as to how Mrs. M. could be best protected. "Kiver 
her up in the bottom of the wagon, pile the baggage around 
her, and leave her to me," was Dick's order; and it was 
obe3'od. In less than a minute she was snugly covered 

13 



138 THE ^'CUSSES" overtaken: 

over in such a manner as to leave no sign of anything in 
the wagon but mails and baggage. She had a brace of 
well-charged revolvers in her hands, and her purpose was 
firmly fixed to take her own life, in case of the capture of 
the teams, rather than suffer the unspeakable horrors of 
Indian captivity. To most of the party she was an entire 
stranger ; but all seemed to forget their own peril in their 
anxiety for her safet}^. Dick's profoundest admiration was 
won because, as he said, "she didn't take on and screech, 
as most of 'em would." Our part}^ scattered out, some 
considerably in advance of the teams to follow the trail in 
the snow, while the others were in a circle around the 
teams, which were kept close together. The road was 
through a narrow canon (can'-yun, the term applied to 
narrow ravines between spurs of the mountains), and the 
broken bluffs and frequent sharp turns, together with the 
snow, made it impossible for us to see any considerable 
distance ahead. We followed the tracks for about a 
mile, when they turned off to the left toward a canon 
running at right angles with the road. The bluffs ter- 
minated abruptly where the Indians had left the road, and 
soon a bright light was visible in a deserted ranch 
''There's the cusses!" exclaimed Dick, — and there they 
were; but, instead of surprising and attacking us, as we 
apprehended, they were the surprised part}^ and apprehen- 
sive of an attack. The moment the wagons came out of the 
caiion in hearing of the Indians, their light went out. We 
were not over one hundred and fifty yards from them ; but 
a swollen stream divided us, so that they could not make 
a dash upon us. We knew that their numbers were not 
greater than ours, from the tracks of their ponies, and we 
felt safe from attack where it had to be done on open 
ground. Their ponies were plainly visible picketed around 
the ranch, and we could have killed or crippled half of 



ARRIVAL AT SULPHUR SPRING. I39 

them by a single fire ; but Dick would not allow the ex- 
periment to be made. ''We've not lost any," said he, 
''and we are not hunting 'em." In obedience to his orders, 
we moved on, all of the men Avalking through snow and 
sometimes in mud six inches deep. We had still four miles 
to the station, but our teams could scarcely draw the 
wagons, and we had to wade along the best way we could. 
When within a mile of Sulphur, one of our horses dropped 
down, and had to be unhitched and abandoned. As we 
supposed that we were beyond the Indians, one wagon, 
with most of the men, went on to the station, leaving the 
other with the driver and several of the party to remain 
with it until we could send back a fresh team. When we 
reached the station, w^e found the men on guard, expecting 
an attack, and learned that the Indians had made two at- 
tacks in the afternoon and captured some sixteen horses 
'and mules. This startling information developed the fact 
that the Indians were in front of us as well as behind us, 
and that they could unite their bands in an hour and 
greatly outnumber us. No lights were allowed about the 
stable, and all possible haste was made to send a well- 
armed party wath fresh horses to get in the party left be- 
hind. When they reached the wagon, the deserted ranch, 
where we had left our band of Indians, was in flames, 
showing that they had fired and deserted it as soon as we 
got out of range of attack; and the station-men concluded 
that their united force would attempt to destroy the station 
at daylight the next morning. 

We found things about the station by no means calcu- 
lated to quiet our apprehensions. The station- and ranch- 
men had gathered in there for safety, and there were over 
thirty armed men when we joined them. One of them, 
the division agent, had his arm in a sling. He had come 
through with the last stage a day before us, and was at- 



140 CArT. WILSON'S APOLOGY TO GEN. SHERMAN 

tacked near Briclger's Pass. He was first wounded in the 
arm; next, the driver, who sat beside him on the boot, was 
killed instantly; next, a ranchman, who was along, w^as 
killed, and his body put in the coach ; and another ranch- 
man was killed, and his body captured by the savages. 
The agent drove the stage in, some fifteen miles, through 
an Indian attack of two hours, and landed at Sulphur, 
driving with one arm, a dead comrade lying under his 
feet, and another in the coach. Two emigrant-wagons 
were with him, making a party of eight to resist the at- 
tacks ; and they brought their teams safely through. The 
same evening they attacked Bridger's Pass Station, in 
which there were but two men — Captain Wilson, of Phila- 
delphia, and another man — and they repulsed the assail- 
ants, killing one and wounding two others. Four Indians 
had also been killed by the party with the coach ; but they 
always carry the bodies of their dead from the field. An 
Indian will brave the greatest danger to get off a dead or 
wounded comrade. Captain Wilson, however, brought in 
the pony, blanket (a new government, evidently recently 
issued), robe, and battle-flag. The battle-flag was a light 
pole, about eight feet long, with a fork at the end. Each 
prong of the stick was decorated with a feather at the 
extreme tip, and near the base of the prong two long 
streamers, made of beaver-skin, were attached. Captain 
Wilson begged me to apologize to General Sherman for 
killing the Indian, as he understood it to be against the 
regulations ; but, he said, as the Indian insisted upon his 
scalp, he had to kill the Indian even at the risk of incurring 
the displeasure of the lieutenant-general and becoming 
liable to the grave charge of provoking an Indian war. 

A strong guard was put out around the station, and 
kept up all night, with reliefs every three hours, and the 
rest of us tried to find some sort of a bed. We were all 



THE ALAR3L 141 

drenched to the skin, and so bespattered with mud that 
we could scarcely recognize each other. No one pretended 
even to draw off his boots, but in our wet clothes we rolled 
ourselves up in wet blankets and piled into every corner 
of the shanty, with our rifles and ammunition close at 
hand. Mrs. M. had a part of the only bed in the house — 
one belonging to an emigrant-wagon, which the good lady 
kindly invited her to share. It was a thin straw mattress, 
and blankets and a borrowed robe served the purpose of 
sheets, pillows, and cover. All slept soundly: indeed, I 
never slept better ; and, but for an alarm about four o'clock, 
I would have nearly got square with sleep for the loss of 
several previous nights. About daybreak, a wild Indian 
yell rang out from the cliffs, not far from the station. The 
guard accepted it as the signal for an attack, and hastily 
aroused the slumbering warriors. There were no toilets to 
'make. In a twinkling, each man had kicked off his blanket, 
grasped his gun, and was ready for action. The port-holes 
were opened, parties stationed at the proper places, and all 
was in readiness in an incredibly short time. We were 
all ripe for a brush. We had been chased, fretted, and 
bedeviled by the Indians for several days; some had lost 
their property, others their ranches, and still others their 
friends ; and there was a universal desire to have the thing 
settled by a square fight. We had the advantage, and felt 
strong enough to repel five times our number ; and that fact, 
doubtless, had much to do with our general desire for a 
fight. But the alarm proved groundless. The Indians did 
not come ; and in the course of an hour we ventured out 
and restationed our guards ; but no man left the door with- 
out his rifle in hand. Immediately in the rear of the station- 
house was a high cliff, the top of w^hich was within short 
rifle-range, so that the Indians could approach close enough 
to fire upon us before they could be seen. A fine sulphur 

13* 



142 WESTWARD AGAIN. 

spring rises within five yards of the building, near the foot 
of the bluffs. I started to get a drink, but was promptly 
stopped until some one could cover my movement with a 
rifle, by standing in the door. Usually, when water was 
wanted, a boy was sent, and a man stood in the door with 
his cocked rifle leveled toward the cliff. As an Indian 
could not fire without uncovering himself to some extent, 
they did not interfere with our bringing in water when a 
rifle guarded the carrier. 

The morning was cold and cheerless, and altogether 
everything seemed most unpropitious. The snow still fell 
in fitful gusts, the roads were almost impassable, but little 
stage-stock remained, and that was worn out, and, to 
crown all, the Indians were around us, and in such num- 
bers that the party could not divide with safety. We had 
a hearty breakfast of elk-steak, bread, and coffee, and then 
began to devise ways and means to get forward. We 
could not remain there, for provisions were becoming 
scarce, and hunting (upon which the station depended en- 
tirely for meat) was impossible : so w^e resolved to move 
ahead, if at all possible. The agent finally concluded to 
send out two stage-loads of passengers westward, and our 
same party that had braved the storm and Indians the 
day before, unanimously agreed to go. By noon w^e are 
to start ; and of our experience on the rest of the route the 
next letter will tell — provided, always, that the Indians do 
not capture the writing-materials and the writer. 



LETTER XY. 

Departure from Sulphur Spring. — The Savages witness our De- 
parture. — Military Strategy of the Old Station-Man. — The Pets 
of the Stations. — Cats, Dogs, and Chickens. — Vengeance of the 
Indians in killing the Station Pets. — Indians attack a Train. — 
Bitter Creek reached. — The Alkali Water and Dust. — Green 
River. — Fresh Water again. — A Dispute for the Team. — The 
Driver convinced in our Pavor. — A Belligerent Official. — The 
Church Buttes — A Team of Bronchos. — Fort Bridger. — Hospi- 
tality of Judge Carter. — The Mormon War. —Indians. — Con- 
tempt of the Males for AVomen. — The Quaking Asp Summit. — 
A Night at Bear River. — Echo Canon. — Hank Conner and his 
Gay Team. — Among the Mormons at Weber. — Crossing the 
Wasatch Range. — Five Feet of Snow. — A Harmless Upset. — 
Arrival at Salt Lake. 

Salt Lake City, June 12, 1867. 
We left Sulphur Spring Station on Friday, near noon, all 
glad to get away and ready to brave new dangers with the 
red-skins if necessary. We started out with two coaches, 
containing the same party we had from North Platte to 
Sulphur Spring, and all, of course, well armed. When we 
reached the top of a bluff a mile west of the station, we 
saw the Indians on the bluff behind the station, making an 
accurate observation of our numbers and movements. They 
were all mounted, and seemed ready for a dash; but we felt 
satisfied that they would not try their hands on us in day- 
light, in a comparatively open country. There were occa- 
sional bluffs and ravines for some miles west of Sulphur, 
but the country gradually opens out until it becomes a 
wide plain, for fifteen miles. With a little precaution, and 

(143) 



144 THE STATIONS. 

going in advance of the coaches here and there to guard 
against surprise, we felt tolerably safe. At the first sta- 
tion (Waskie) we found that no Indians had appeared 
there as yet. The old station-keeper had the hind carriage 
of a stage-wagon mounted with a section of large stove- 
pipe, a caisson improvised out of a wheelbarrow, and the 
letters '' U. S." painted on them in the largest possible 
style. While the team was grazing, we had a pleasant 
chat with the old fellow, and heard him tell some thrill- 
ing stories of the early trials on the plains and in the 
mountains. 

The stations were ever places of interest to me. They 
are isolated, generally located in a hollow beside a stream, 
and the occupants have no companions except their horses 
and such other animals as they gather about them. The 
"swing-stations," where the teams are changed, and no 
meals furnished passengers, consist of a rude stable, built of 
logs or mud and invariably covered with earth. In a little 
corner is a small room partitioned off, in which the station- 
men cook, eat, sleep, tell stories, read yellow-covered liter- 
ature, and caress their pets. In every instance I was 
first greeted by one or more cats. They are the insepar- 
able companions of the stable-men, and usually answer to 
the tenderest names. They always come stepping out as 
soon as the stage stops, and approach the passengers, 
giving the most cordial welcome, and rubbing themselves 
against them to get a kind stroking in return. Sometimes 
one large Tom has the monopoly of the establishment, 
but generally Tabby follows with her litter, and directs 
attention, with maternal pride, to her jewels. The little 
ones will spring into your lap, climb on your shoulders, 
and purr in your very ears to win a little notice. The 
Newfoundland or St. Bernard dog is also the invariable 
companion of the stable-man, and they, too, greet the pas- 



CATS, DOGS, AND C ETC KENS. 145 

sengers with every evidence of hospitality. Frequently 
the Creole chickens are part of the family, and they are 
as tame as the rest of the pets. The rooster steps out in 
front of the stable when the passengers get out, and gives 
them a touching reminder of home as he rises in his con- 
scious dignity and makes the bluffs ring with his shrill, 
defiant crow. With him come the biddies, sometimes with 
their broods, meekly presenting their claims to a kind word 
or a crumb from the passers-by. The men, animals, and 
birds constitute one family. When meals are ready, puss, 
Jowler, and the chickens all are present, and are trained to 
earn a liberal share by practicing cunning tricks which 
they have been taught. At the "home-stations," where 
meals are furnished to passengers, there is always a log or 
mud shanty in addition to the stable, and usually the land- 
lord has a family. I did not find one of the home-stations 
without a landlady. Frequently there were other house- 
hold pets, such as obtain in most Avell-regulated families ; 
but babies did not appear in the assortment. I cannot re- 
call a station, in the trip of six hundred miles from Denver 
here, where the cats and dogs did not come out in the most 
friendly manner to welcome us, and always persisted in 
pressing their acquaintance until they were recognized 
kindly. At Sulphur Spring the station-keeper of Bridger's 
Pass was one of our party, and his keenest grief was be- 
cause of the brutal murder of his favorite cat. Had she been 
burned or shot, he would not have complained ; but I gave 
him the profoundest sorrow by telling him that the Indians 
had skinned his cat, cut the head off, and set the carcass out 
in the road on a tin plate. The Indians well knew that next 
to scalping the station-keeper himself, they could not have 
inflicted upon him a deeper wound. " They've skinned her 
alive, the devils of hell," was his exclamation, and, with 
gritting teeth, he vowed vengeance. For horses, ranch, 



146 BITTER CREEK REACHED. 

clothing, traps, etc. he cared not ; but that the Indians should 
wreak their atrocities upon the pet of his little family, was 
more than his nature could endure with equanimity. 

When we got out some twenty miles west of Sulphur, 
we had a beautiful open prairie, and the sun was strug- 
gling with the clouds to give us a pleasant day. At times 
he would seem to triumph, and the green grass, and the 
ponds just filled by the storm, seemed to give us a grate- 
ful welcome ; but again the heavens would blacken, and 
the spiteful snow make us close up our coach and gather 
about us our blankets and robes. We met a large mixed 
train of mules and oxen just as we had gained the wide 
prairie, and gave the master the details of our trials. He 
informed us that there was another train some miles behind 
him, and that he would wait for it to go through with him. 
He had sixty armed men, and felt pretty safe — so safe, in- 
deed, that at the next home-station the telegraph informed 
us that the Indians had, that very day, captured all his 
mules and killed one of his men. 

About eleven o'clock at night we reached Laclede, and 
stopped for supper, rather to have a little rest and get 
warmed up, than to satisfy hunger. There we found our- 
selves fairly in the celebrated Bitter Creek region of the 
Kocky Mountains. For a distance of about one hundred 
miles, there is no water fit to drink. Bitter Creek, which 
drains the country, is so impregnated with alkali that 
neither man nor beast can drink it without injury ; and the 
wells at the stations are almost equally bad. The water, 
if drunk in the usual quantities, produces violent nausea, 
and does not satisfy thirst. Even in coffee and tea it is 
tasted, and the '' square meals" seem throughout as if 
alkali had been spilled profusely on everything. Fortu- 
nately for us, we entered it about dark, and the recent 
storm prevented dust, and the continued cold weather did 



GREEN- RIVER, 147 

not provoke thirst. When the weather is warm and the 
roads are dry, the dust of this section is ahnost intolerable. 
We had but a small installment of it the last few hours we 
were on it, and it parched the lips and irritated the nose 
with a keenness almost equal to that of quicklime. It is the 
most desolate section between the Atlantic and Salt Lake. 
Even the sage-brush and grease-wood, the only growth it 
can boast, are stunted, and seem to eke out a miserable 
existence. There is no grass to protect the traveler or 
trains from the widest sweep of its almost impalpable 
sands, and when the season is dry it envelops everything 
in its burning clouds. It is a portion of the desolate route 
that every tourist hurries over with the utmost speed,. and 
usually the most delightful view of the trip is the fresh 
water of Green River. It is hailed as an oasis in the 
desert, as it furnishes clear, sweet water and invites the 
• traveler to continued fresh waters beyond. 

We ferried Green River just before dark, and supped at 
the station on potatoes, dry bread, and coffee. The gen- 
eral derangement of the stage-stock by the Indians left 
us without horses to proceed farther with our two coaches, 
and it became a nice question who should get the prefer- 
ence. There being no agent there, the driver was the 
supreme power in the case. The rule of the line is to send 
on the first coach that comes. As we came together, each 
claimed precedence — we because our party had the oldest 
tickets, and the others because they started from Denver 
a day before us. Just here our old freighter (Mr. Perry) 
came in excellent play. The driver was obstinately non- 
comnaittal, and a brief council decided that even rights 
were marketable in the Far West. The driver w^as called 
behind the baggage-boot on pretense of locking up a valise. 
There were a few words said, a very slight rustling of fine 
paper in his vest-pocket, and he promptly decided that we 



148 THE CHURCH BUTTES. 

were entitled to the first team. One of A. J.'s appointees 
was in the other party, and he demonstrated the fitness of 
his appointment by such an Executive, by swinging his 
pistol and demanding to be forwarded at once because he 
was a government official. While he was swearing, the 
driver coolly handed him his baggage and told him that 
he should have the first passage " after the gentlemen and 
lady had gone." He rushed to the telegraph and sent a 
message to the stage-officer at Denver, at a cost of $t.20, 
while $10 had settled the whole question against him but 
a few minutes before. As nobody paid any attention to 
him, he finally subsided, and in a short time was asleep 
with the rest of us in the little room around the stove. 
Mrs. M. had been favored with a corner in the kitchen, 
where there was a good fire, and the rest of us had a com- 
fortable bed on our blankets and robes in the dining-room. 
We had to wait for the arrival of a western coach before 
we could proceed, and we were allowed to sleep until 
one in the morning before we were called to pursue our 
journey. 

From Green River to Fort Bridger, a distance of about 
sixty miles, there are the finest springs, and a continuous, 
broad, green valley. The day was beautiful — the first 
pleasant weather we had been favored with since entering 
the mountains. The Church Buttes are the special object 
of interest to the traveler in this valle}^ They consist of 
immense rocks situated on abrupt cliffs, presenting the ap- 
pearance of vast churches with altars, pulpits, and domes. 
Some of them tower up three hundred feet above the top 
of the bluffs, with almost perpendicular walls, and present 
every variety of architecture. The roads being fine in this 
region, we had some original teams. At Millersville, 
twelve miles from Bridger, they hitch up six raw bronchos 
(wild California horses). It required a man to each horse 



HOSPITALITY OF JUDGE CARTER. U9 

to get them into the harness, and then each one had to be 
held until all was ready. They reared, plunged, kicked, 
pulled back, lay down, and played all manner of fantastic 
antics ; but the driver finally mounted his box with a cool- 
ness that showed him to be perfect master of the situation, 
and, as he yelled to them to '*git," his keen silken cracker 
flashed about their flanks and kept flashing until all started 
on a run. They don't take time to break horses on the 
plains, but where there is a level country they harness 
them with a pitchfork and drive them under the whip until 
they are glad to be docile. Bogs and washes in the roads 
are of no consequence — they dash through them as if they 
did not exist, and, with a yell and a sharp crack of the 
whip, they rear out on the other side. The strange feature 
of these horses is that they are never broken until they 
are worn out. They seem to be by nature intractable, and 
as long as they are able for the road they jneld to harness 
only after an exhaustive struggle. 

We reached Fort Bridger about the middle of the after- 
noon (Sunday), and were met at the station by Judge 
Carter, and made to share his proverbial hospitality. I 
had met him at Denver when we were all blockaded there, 
and was glad to be welcomed to the abode of civilization 
after a full week of unpleasant adventure among Indians 
and ranchmen. He has a comfortable house, an estimable 
wife, several daughters (most of them East at school), a 
fine piano, library, and everything that is to be found in 
Eastern residences. He came to Bridger with General A. 
Sidney Johnston, in 185t, as a sutler, and remained after 
the so-called Mormon war was ended. He is a Virginian 
b}^ birth, a tall, spare, flaxen-haired gentleman, with white 
flowing beard and moustache, and evidently a gentleman 
of much more than ordinary character and culture. He 
has expended some $40,000 in building on the military 

14 



150 THE MORMON WAR. 

reservation lands, and has an immense store. He deals 
largely with the friendly Indians, and emigrants, and sup- 
plies the garrison with sutler's stores. As is usual in the 
exercise of Western hospitality, he took us into his well- 
filled cellar, and, as I declined whisky, brandy, gin, rum, 
etc., he went on to something else, until he turned up a 
bottle of what he called fav^orite bitters, and that, he said, 
I must drink. Being under military rule, I, of course, 
complied. Before I had the glass empty, he had a bottle 
in my overcoat-pocket ; and, as I Avas starting, he insisted 
that I didn't balance properly, and he crammed one into 
the pocket on the other side. To resist would have seemed 
to be affectation, and I submitted. In case of accident 
they may, as Mrs. Toodles would say, be handy to have 
about the house. 

Judge Carter and Colonel Miles, the post-commandant, 
favored me with a general inspection of the works and 
buildings. The position was first chosen by the Mormons 
to resist Johnston's advance, and their cobble-stone fortifi- 
cation still stands, and serves as a stable for the garrison. 
It is most beautifully situated in what seems to be nearly 
the centre of a vast plain. A number of rapid mountain- 
streams flow through and around the works, and a heart- 
some growth of Cottonwood breaks the monotony of the 
prairie. It was there that General Johnston was overtaken 
by winter, and compelled to go into winter quarters ; while 
the Mormons retreated west and wintered in Echo Canon. 
The next year the regular fort-quarters were erected ; and 
it is now an admirable military post. As we had no 
change of horses, we were glad to remain with Judge 
Carter until late in the day. There were swarms of In- 
dians around the buildings, begging, trading, and stealing. 
The chief of the Bannocks, a northern tribe, w^as there to 
confer with Judge Carter about peace and supplies, and 



QUAKING ASP SUMMIT. 151 

Waskie's tribe always stay close to the fort. They wander 
about in squads, the "bucks" and "squaAvs," as they are 
designated, alwaj^s separate. The males have the pro- 
foundest contempt for the squaws. They will never recog- 
nize or speak to them before the whites, unless to order 
them away. One bedizened warrior, glorying in beaded 
buckskin pants, and silken streamers elaborately embroid- 
ered flying from his feet, was mounted on his pony before 
the door. Mrs. M. approached to examine his finery, and 
he looked at her for a moment with intense disgust, when, 
yelling out, " Pooh, pooh — squaw !" he galloped off. Some 
of the Bannocks came in front without any trappings, and 
their squaws came meekly after, sitting astride of their 
tent-covers, with their papooses tied to their backs and 
their lodge-poles trailing behind them. When they arrive 
at the place where the tent is to be pitched, the dusky lord 
■lies down on the grass, while his bride builds their shelter 
and prepares their meal. 

We left Fort Bridger a little before sunset, but could 
not make rapid progress, as our old team had to be taken. 
Toward midnight we crossed the Quaking Asp Summit. 
It is about nine thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
and is the greatest altitude attained on the route across 
the Rocky Mountains. The road across was very rough, 
and when we reached Bear River, about midnight, the 
driver refused to go farther until his teams were rested. 
Accordingly, we turned in at the station, and made up our 
beds, as usual, with robes and blankets, giving Mrs. M. 
the kitchen floor and the benefit of the stove. It will doubt- 
less 'seem strange that the stove was ever in demand at 
the stations ; but for five hundred miles we did not have 
a single day or night that a stove was not desirable. After 
a sound sleep and a hearty breakftist, we started out with 
a bright morning, and soon came to the head of Echo Caiion 



152 A3I0NG THE 3I0RM0NS AT WEBER. 

— one of the most remarkable ravines in the mountains, 
where the echoes can be heard for miles. It is a continuous 
narrow passage through the broken mountains for twenty 
miles, at times so narrow that there is not room for both 
the little creek and the road ; and it is usually driven by 
one of the famous drivers of the overland journey. Hank 
Conner, a fancy and decidedly fast hero of the whip and 
lines, is the regular driver ; but he was off his beat by the 
general derangement. We had one, however, who was 
determined to sustain Hank's reputation. Mrs. M. sat out 
with him on the driver's boot, to get the full benefit of the 
wild scenery, and he could not miss the opportunity to dis- 
play his art to the best advantage. We had reached a 
region where grain and hay were plenty, and we had ex- 
cellent horses. One of our teams was so wild that it took 
all of us to get them into the harness, and when in, '' Gin- 
ger" and " Lantern" well-nigh defied the power of the lines ; 
but the road was good most of the way and all down hill, 
and we w^hirled along in the liveliest manner until w^e 
emerged at Weber's Station, near the foot of the Wasatch 
Range, and but fifty miles from Salt Lake City. After an 
excellent Mormon dinner, we started off again through the 
first settlement we had seen since we left the streams near 
Denver. For some fifteen miles we passed through a 
thick settlement of Mormons and one or two considerable 
villages. They have good fences, and seem to be most 
thrifty farmers. About every house there was shrubbery 
and shade, grown by irrigation, and all had gardens in 
bloom. At the eastern foot of the Wasatch Range we 
stopped with Wm. Kimball, son of Heber Kimball, second 
president of the Mormon Church. He keeps a hotel, and 
has the first regular two-storied house 1 had seen within 
five hundred miles. He had three wives to shower bless- 
ings upon his domestic hearth, and quite an assortment of 



ARRIVAL AT SALT LAKE. 153 

children. The favorite wife was in the parlor, with two 
small children, and entertained us while the others pre- 
pared supper. We had some music on the piano, and 
spent an hour most pleasantly. How it would have been 
had the three wives and their latest editions of little Kim- 
balls all been with us, I cannot guess ; but I doubt whether 
there would not have been some clouds mingled with the 
sunshine. 

About ten o'clock we started to climb the Wasatch. We 
were but twenty-five miles from this place, and were most 
impatient to get through. It was a beautiful night, the 
moon more than half full, and the road passably good. 
Near the summit we all got out to walk, and had to pass 
over five feet of beaten snow in the road on the tenth day 
of June. We had a magnificent team of six grays, and ex- 
pected to whirl into Salt Lake City handsomely as soon as 
we crossed the summit. After we had got fairly over, we 
got in, and off we started ; but in less than twenty minutes 
the stage plunged into a deep rut and upset instantly. For- 
tunately, the team stopped, and we directed our efforts to 
get the passengers out. I was on the upper side, and soon 
got out through the side door, and as each passenger was 
hurriedly called the answer came that no serious damage 
was done. They presented a strange mixture. Rifles, 
traveling-bags, satchels, lunch-baskets, bottles, etc. were all 
in admirable confusion among the passengers ; but luckily 
no material harm was done to either passengers or property. 
We soon righted up again, and had a delightful moonlight 
drive down through Parley Canon to this place, where we 
arrived about three o'clock on Tuesday morning, after a 
most tedious and eventful journey of eight days from 
Denver. 

14* 



LETTER XYI. 

Hospitality of the Mormons. — Despotism of the Mormon Leaders. 
— The Theory of Mormon Power. — Character of the Mormon 
Emigrants. — Their Greatly Improved Temporal Condition. — 
The Serfs of the Old World become Thrifty Farmers in Utah. 
— Brigham Young. — His Abilities as an Administrator gener- 
ally underrated. — His Appearance, Culture, and Manners. — 
His Wives. — The Last and Favorite an Apple of Discord in the 
Prophet's Home. — Polygamy as a Source of Power. — Plural 
Wives. — The Terrors of Polygamy to Mormon Women. — 
Preaching in the Tabernacle. — Brigham Young's Sermon. — His 
Blasphemy and Profanity. — His Temporal Power. — His Finan- 
cial Management. — Distracting Issues in the Church. — The 
Causes combining to the Overthrow of Mormonism. 

Salt Lake City, June 18, 1867. 

I HAVE seen Mormonism in its best garments only. Its 
dignitaries have made me welcome. Its hospitality en- 
compassed me. Its fruits and flowers, its bright spots 
and pleasant recreations, were all before me. With its 
humble followers and its shadowed household circles I 
must repeat the experience of all other gentile visitors, 
and go, as I came, a stranger. But on every hand, on the 
streets, in the homes where crime w^ears its richest gilding, 
in the tabernacle, and even in the very fountain of the pol- 
luted stream, are plainly visible the melancholy evidence 
of mingled fraud and infatuation, of cunning wrong-doers 
and deluded wrong-sufferers. 

The world elsewhere may be sought in vain for a des- 
potism so relentless and pitiless as is Mormonism. Kings 
(154) 



DESPOTISM OF THE MORMON LEADERS. 155 

and emperors rule millions of willing or unwilling subjects, 
but there is no people in such utter, abject servility to their 
monarch. There are churches wherein infallibility is ac- 
corded to the head, or limited power of an absolute char- 
acter conceded ; but in none could any spiritual potentate 
rise up, as did Brigham Young on Sunday last, before 
twenty-five hundred people, and prescribe their worldly 
actions, their ordinary daily dealings, with the penalty of 
eternal damnation proclaimed for disobedience. At first 
glance, the arrogant exercise of power by the Mormon 
leaders, and the willing submission of their followers, be- 
wilder the observer ; but when the whole theory of this 
stupendous fraud is unraveled, the character of its subjects 
studied, the thousand channels through which absolute 
power reaches out and ramifies into almost every house- 
hold, it ceases to be incomprehensible. A very large ma- 
jority of the Mormon people are the rescued serfs of the 
Old World — not so perhaps in name in most cases, but so 
in fact. They are ignorant, superstitious, fanatical, and 
ready victims for a new doctrine that promises to bring 
them into immediate communion with God. When once 
brought to the home of the Saints, often by the generous 
aid of the Emigration Society, their temporal condition is 
readily bettered, their social status is elevated to recogni- 
tion by even the inspired teachers, and they never learn 
aught else but submission to the dogmas of the Church 
and the mandates of its apostles. They, as a rule, remain 
aliens to the government ; and no claim upon the citizen 
is tolerated that in any degree antagonizes the claims or 
doctrines of the Church. 

I regard Brigham Young as a man greatly underesti- 
mated by most persons in the East. They all judge him 
mainly by his ribald and often blasphemous harangues 
from the pulpit, and do not appreciate him as a great ad- 



156 BRIG HAM YOUNG. 

ministrator and a leader of surpassing attainments. I 
first saw him in his own business-room. He was nearly 
or perhaps quite alone when I entered, but almost instantly 
several side doors opened, and half a dozen brothers, sons, 
secretaries, etc. were seated around the little office. I learn 
that he never sees any person alone, unless he knows per- 
fectly the character of the visitor, and that when strangers 
call on him his person is guarded from possible assassination 
by the apparently casual but doubtless systematic appear- 
ance of his immediate friends. He greets the visitor with 
serene dignity and faultless courtesy, and converses freely 
and quite intelligently on all agreeable topics. He was 
evidently in no mood for a talk about the inside workings 
of Mormonism ; and an inquiry as to the number of his 
wives and children, and their health, would doubtless have 
terminated the interview most abruptly. He is a well-pre- 
served man of sixty-six years, of medium height, rather 
corpulent, with an abundant growth of light, auburn hair, 
and a heavy crop of sandy whiskers, excepting on his 
upper and lower lips. His eyes are of a very light, dull 
blue, and wanting in expression, his nose sharp and promi- 
nent, his lips thick and firmly set, and the whole gives 
him the appearance of a man of obstinate will and cold, 
calculating purpose. His head is of unusual shape. The 
face is quite broad just across the centre, and gradually 
narrows up to the top of the forehead and down to the 
point of the chin, while his neck is of uncommon thick- 
ness, and describes a semi-oval line from the base of the 
head to the top, tapering gradually to the crown, giving it 
a sugar-loaf finish. He is evidently a man of the keenest 
perception, of great self-reliance and will, of the subtlest 
cunning, and possesses a physical organization capable of 
the highest measure of endurance. In his manner and 
movements he is quite graceful, indicating considerable 



HIS WIVES. 15 1 

culture, but really the fruit of his varied experience and 
intercourse with all classes of men. No man could acquire 
any needed quality more readily than Brigham Young. 
He is eminent as a mimic, and often resorts to mimicry as 
his most powerful weapon in hurling his anathemas against 
the gentiles or apostates in his sermons. In short, I would 
put him down, after meeting him in his office and hear- 
ing him in the pulpit, as a finished impostor, singularly 
able, versatile, and unscrupulous, and as one who seeks 
to hide his revolting licentiousness by deliberate blas- 
phemy. 

I do not pretend to know the number of wives and chil- 
dren Brigham Young can boast. I believe that no two 
writers have estimated them alike ; and I have found no 
Mormon, in the scores with whom I have conversed on 
the subject, who professed to know. It is conceded, how- 
ever, that he has some twenty who are members of his 
household, and probably a score of others who are simply 
sealed to him as spiritual wives, to share his high crown 
in the future world. Even the dead have been wedded to 
him by prox}'-, to satisfy the anxiety of deluded parents 
who wished their departed daughters to wear starry robes 
around the prophet in heaven. Of his living wives, who 
are subject to his domestic laws, the first, who was his 
lawful wife before pol3^gamy was thought of as part of the 
Mormon faith, now lives in a pleasant, spacious cottage by 
herself, some distance from the harem that is peopled with 
the fairer and more tender acquisitions to his family circle. 
She is said to be a firm believer in the faith, and accepts 
her situation as a cross imposed upon her to enhance her 
reward hereafter. I saw her in the theatre, along with 
five junior wives, who had succeeded each other in the 
favor of the prophet and had given way in time to younger 
and fresher charms. Of all the so-called Mrs. Youngs I 



158 F0LYGA3fr AS A SOURCE OF POWER. 

have seen, the lawful wife seems much the most intelligent 
and refined. The last one, and of course for the present 
the favorite, had a private box in the theatre, sported gay- 
ribbons and furbelows, and seemed to look down upon her 
faded predecessors with the contempt they deserved. She 
is a niece of the first wife, and defies even Brigham's boasted 
domestic government. She was tried in the harem, but her 
rebellious spirit threatened the subversion of all law and 
order there, and she is now quartered in a house of her own, 
beyond range of the others. I do not, of course, credit all 
the stories of revolting scenes detailed as occurring in the 
extensive family of the Prophet; but it is well known that 
the last addition to the wives hectors her anointed frac- 
tion of a husband in the most irreverent style, and storms 
the holy inner circle of inspired power with profane speech 
and violent pugilistic gestures. Although each one after 
the first has usurped the place of another, not one has 
been discarded for a successor without the keenest sorrow, 
and often only after frenzied but fruitless resistance. 

Polygamy was not a part of the Mormon creed as pro- 
mulgated by Smith. On the contrary, he expressly de- 
nounced it, and his widow and sons have discarded the 
Salt Lake Mormons because of the adulterous practices 
committed in the name of the Church. Brigham Young 
is the founder of the poh^gamic feature of the faith of the 
Latter-Day Saints. While I doubt not that lust had much 
to do with its adoption, yet, as a means of attaining des- 
potic power, it has served an important purpose. Mr. 
Young has four brothers, all adhering to the Church in 
this city, and all with a plurality of wives. His sons 
imitate his example with filial fidelity; and his daughters 
are married only into harems of the more intelligent and 
influential members of the Church. By this system he is 
directly related to every family of importance in Zion, and 



TERRORS OF POLYGAMY TO 3I0RM0N WOMEN. 159 

his power is perpetuated. By thus binding the more in- 
telligent to his cause by marriage ties, he is enabled to 
command the complete submission of the unlearned, by 
declaring polygamy to be the duty of the faithful, and 
promising the heart-broken wives that their crosses are 
but creating for them brighter crowns above. 

I had much anxiety to see polygamy in the household, 
but have failed. Not only are strangers practically denied 
acquaintance with plural wives, but the subject is never a 
welcome one in conversation. I have talked with many 
Mormons who are polygamists, and in every instance 
when I asked respecting their wives, they responded as if 
I had introduced to them some painful and delicate scandal 
about their families. I found but one who claimed, and I 
learn justly, to have two wives in one house, and both 
happy. In most instances each wife must have a sepa- 
f-ate house, to hide herself from humiliation and shame. 
Of all who introduced the subject to me, I asked the 
question, " Did your first wife cheerfully consent to 
your marriage to another?" and in not a single instance 
was an affirmative answer given. Mormon or gentile, 
with one accord the women revolt against it. They 
must cease to be women, and descend into the scale of 
brutes, before the wives of Salt Lake can voluntarily 
consent to such appalling degradation. One-third of the 
entire adult male population of Utah is now practicing 
polygamy, and in Salt Lake City the proportion is larger. 
It hangs like a terrible pall upon the mothers, wives, and 
daughters of the Saints. Not only those who have been 
enfolded in its slimy embrace mourn from day to day their 
hard lot, but those who have thus far escaped its pollu- 
tion know not how soon the spoiler may enter their fire- 
sides, and harrowing anxiety dims the lustre of their eyes 
and traces its shadows upon their faces. 



160 FRE ACHING IN THE TABERNACLE. 

Not only is licentiousness ever pleading the cause of 
poh^gamy, but the Church demands it of all men who can 
afford more than one wife, and women are taught to con- 
sent to it on pain of eternal damnation. I heard four 
Mormon sermons on Sunday — two by fools and two by 
knaves. The one, for instance, who declared that he had 
seen Joseph Smith perfectly personated in Brigham Young 
when he thrust Rigdon out and assumed the presidency 
himself, even to a broken front tooth, was simply a lunatic. 
In the course of his sermon he gave the particulars of his 
conversion. He proposed to the Lord that if He would 
appear in person to him he would believe, and the Lord 
appeared to him, and he thenceforth became a Saint. He 
was followed by one of the shrewdest of the elders, who 
argued with some plausibilit}^ that the original Church of 
Christ had strayed and broken into discordant branches, 
and that it had been founded again by Smith and Young 
and was separate from the world and united in its great 
work. In the afternoon, we had an incoherent and sense- 
less harangue from a Cockne}^; but Brigham pulled him 
down by the coat-tail in a short time, and took the pulpit 
himself. His speech would read, away in the East, like the 
foolish vaporing of a conceited blackguard ; but never were 
remarks more timely or better adapted to the people he 
addressed. He argued for twenty minutes, that not one 
person in forty knew how to take care of himself in either 
temporal or spiritual matters ; that all must have leaders 
experienced in temporal, and inspired in religious affairs; 
that they must live submissively to those who are compe- 
tent to lead them, or be cut off with the wicked. He com- 
plained of the selfishness of some of the Saints. Said he, 
'* People I brought here from serfdom, who could not own 
a chicken before they came, and who were glad to take a 
spade from me to get a crust of bread, now have lands, and 



BRIG HAM YOUNG'S BLASniEiMY. 161 

houses, and cattle, and greenbacks, and carriages; and 
they want to dictate to me ; they want to sap the founda- 
tion of Zion ; but I will not be dictated to. I am called of 
the Lord, and it is mine to teach, and yours to obey. I 
say what I please ; I put up this pulpit with the crimson 
covering, and paid for it myself, expressly to go into it 
and say what I please. I will take it away if I like, and 
stand on a table or chair ; for the Lord's will can be de- 
clared in one way as well as another." And thus he ram- 
bled on, but always with evident method. After pleading 
for unity, he told the young ladies of the Church that they 
had no capacity for taking care of themselves and their 
honor, and that the Church, with its ceremonies and cove- 
nants, was their only safety. He closed by demanding 
that gentiles and apostates be shunned in all dealings, 
even although it costs more to purchase from a Saint. 
"You may answer," said he, "that is none of my d — d 
business. Perhaps it is not, just now; but the time will 
soon come when it will be my business to testify respect- 
ing this people, and I pledge you that those who disobey 
this command shall not enter into the strait gate. I will 
not speak hard of you if you don't stop wasting your 
dollars with gentiles and apostates, nor will I think hard 
of you ; but I will say, in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, let the righteous be saved, and the wicked go their 
way to everlasting punishment." I saw poor infatuated 
Mormons shudder at this terrible anathema from one they 
supposed to be an inspired oracle of God ; and the fear of 
his malediction is one of the strongest elements of cohe- 
siveffess with the deluded masses of his followers. In the 
foregoing quotations I have given his language almost 
literally, and preserved the sentiments faithfully, without 
the least embellishment. 

Brigham Young is the supreme temporal as well as 
15 



162 HIS FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT. 

spiritual head of the Church, and he is no more responsible 
to his fellows in temporal than in spiritual matters. The 
Church property is all in his name in fee, the titles are re- 
ceived by him, and he accounts to no one, nor will he 
tolerate inquiry as to the expenditures. A prominent Mor- 
mon merchant here, whose tithes amounted to a very large 
sum of mone}^, demanded a statement of the receipts and 
disbursements, and he was cut off from the Saints here 
and from the Saints in heaven. When it is considered 
that all Mormons are required to give to the Church one- 
tenth of all they raise in kind and one-tenth of all they 
make in any business, the magnitude of the fund intrusted 
to Young without question or check of any sort is start- 
ling. First of all he supplies his harem and numerous 
progeny ; then he builds at the tabernacle and temple ; 
then mills, theatres, factories, etc., all in his own name, 
receiving the proceeds ostensibly for the Church, and no 
one daring to question his judgment or demand a balance- 
sheet. His annual income now cannot be less than half a 
million dollars. The humble, deluded followers believe 
that it is wisely and faithfully expended ; but do not the 
licentious leaders know better ? 

There are palpable signs of dissolution in the Mormon 
Church. The Josephites (the followers of Smith) pro- 
nounce polygamy a sin, and they claim to be the true Mor- 
mon Church and entitled to the Church property. When 
Brigham was South, this spring, he had to "cut off" sev- 
eral hundred members for heresy, because they adhered 
to Smith ; and over one hundred wagon-loads of emigrants 
are now in the mountains on their way East to escape his 
fearful vengeance. The Morrisites are another class of dis- 
senters, and have no fellowship with the Salt Lake Church. 
They denounce pol3^gamy, and are constantly receiving 
acquisitions to their numbers. They have a strong settle- 



DISTRACTING ISSUES IN THE OIIURCII 163 

ment in Utah, at Soda Springs, under the very shadow of 
the Prophet. Every sermon I heard from the Mormons 
betrayed nervous fears as to divisions ; some appealed, 
some unfolded the duty of submission, and Brigham thun- 
dered his fierce anathemas against the faithless. Gentile 
dealings and associations are forbidden, because Mormon- 
ism cannot bear contact with virtue and truth, nor can its 
crowning crime of polygamy bear contact even with vice. 
Virtue and vice are alike its foes and equally fatal to its 
perpetuity. Thus is the Mormonism of Young beset by 
schisms, periled by growing intercourse with gentiles ; and 
soon the Pacific Kailroad will pour thousands of popula- 
tion into all the fruitful valleys of the West, and in but a 
few years the distinctiveness of this people must fade away. 
While the government has been shamefully remiss in tol- 
erating the habitual, insolent defiance of one of its soundest 
laws, it seems that natural causes are fast converging to 
the overthrow of this foulest blot upon the American name. 
One gentile family in a community of polygamists is better 
than a thousand sermons against this colossal crime. One 
happy, cheerful wife, confident of the undivided affection 
of her husband, is like an angel of light in the region of 
despair ; and even the deepest-seated superstition gradually 
yields, as it sees the gentile wife worship with her hus- 
band and household gods, read from a common Bible, 
plead the atonement of the same Saviour, and supplicate 
the same God. Secret discontent, positive dissatisfaction, 
or open rebellion has its place around every fireside, and 
each year develops in bolder tones and more defiant ac- 
tions the restless cancer that is preying upon the vitals 
of this monstrous vice. It must soon die. Its own enor- 
mity must give it the grave of a suicide, if no other great 
causes were tending to its destruction ; but it is a blister- 
ing shame that, in this noontide of the nineteenth century, 



164 CAUSES ^'ENDING TO DESTROY MORMONISM. 

just laws forbidding this wholesale prostitution, practiced 
in appalling mockery and blasphemy of all that is pure 
and holy, stand as dead letters upon our national statute- 
books. With the strong arm of the government firmly 
maintaining virtue, order, and law — ever careful to en- 
croach upon no rights of conscience or freedom of worship 

this wrong would soon hide itself from the scorn of 

society, instead of boasting of its social supremacy, and 
linger out its future existence in shame. As an insti- 
tution, it would at once cease to have a habitation or 
a name, and this twin-sister of human bondage, equally 
fruitful of treason and of crime, would perish from the fair 
land of freedom and justice. 




BRIGHAM YOUNG. 



LETTER XYIL 

The Pleasant City of the Saints.— Their Industry and Thrift.— 
Their Enjoyments. — The Great Basin. — Salt Lake. — Its Trihu- 
taries. — Why Utah was chosen by the Mormons. — Character 
of the Valley when they found it. — Success of Mormon Indus- 
try. — The Mormon Keligion. — Brigham Young Spirituial and 
Temporal Head of the Church. — His "Wives. — The Eeligious 
Feature of Polygamy. — Mormon Wives again. — Mormon Ser- 
vice in the Tabernacle. — The Blot of Polygamy. 

Salt Lake City, June 19, 1867. 
I HAVE now spent a week with the Latter-Day Saints, 
admired their green shades, beautiful artificial streams, 
pleasant homes, and the innumerable evidences of indus- 
try and prosperity which appear on every hand. Their 
markets are filled with the choicest vegetables, and the 
finest strawberries of the continent are offered every hour 
of the day, at reasonable prices. Stores equal to those of 
the cities of the Western States are numerous, and busi- 
ness of all branches has an air of system, capital, and 
thrift that is delightful. This is a city of twenty thousand 
population, without paupers, brothels, or gambling-hells. 
Among the Mormons, who constitute over ninety per cent, 
of the people, there are none idle, and they claim that none 
suffer. The bee-hive is found on the dome of the Prophet's 
house, and frequently on rude business signs, as typical 
of the habits of the faithful. All must work ; and, while 
each owns his property gained by industry, there is still a 
common store where the distressed and children of want 
repair. And industry is brightened in every possible way. 

15* ( 165 ) 



166 SALT LAKE CITY. 

In the evening the merry dance is to be heard in ahnost 
every ward ; the theatre is never closed for any length of 
time, and recreation is devised in every conceivable manner 
to lighten the burdens of toil. 

Salt Lake City is in what is called the Great Basin of 
the West. A section of country, nearly a circle, with a 
radius of about three hundred miles from the centre, is 
walled in by the Wasatch Mountains on the east, the 
Sierra Nevada on the west, and their broken spurs north 
and south. This great valley has no outlet for its waters. 
The Jordan, Ogden, Bear, and Weber Rivers, with many 
lesser streams, empty into the Great Salt Lake, distant 
about twelve miles from this city. It is ninety miles long, 
and averages about thirty in width, and is the most briny 
body of water in the world. So strongly is it impregnated 
with salt, that its shores are but a bed of salt, and a man 
in the lake will float like a cork. Sink he cannot ; but the 
head must be kept carefully uppermost, for in whatever 
position he lands in the water he is likely to remain. If 
head down, down the head will stay, and it requires 
almost a superhuman effort to reverse the position of the 
body. In the lake are vast islands and high, rugged 
mountains, some of them covered with nutritious grass and 
abounding in fresh springs. Cattle and horses are grazed 
there, and thrive better than anywhere else in the Terri- 
tory. South of this the river Sevier empties into Lake 
Sevier, which is also without an outlet ; but the waters 
sink, and do not become salt. In the western portion of 
the Great Basin (now the State of Nevada) there are a 
number of large rivers, and all sink into the earth at differ- 
ent points in the valley and doubtless find subterranean 
passages to the sea. The Humboldt, Walker, Carson, 
Truckee, and other rivers drain Nevada, and all are without 
an open channel to the ocean. Some of them empty into 



INDUSTRY OF THE MORMONS. 16t 

lakes, but none of them are salt, and all doubtless have 
invisible outlets. 

This great basin was once regarded as a vast desert. 
The Mormons accepted it as their home to escape the 
antagonism of the Christians, and supposed that here they 
could remain unmolested for centuries. When they arrived 
here, there was not so much as a trail across the mount- 
ains. This valley, as well as all west to the Pacific and 
south to the Gulf, belonged to Mexico ; and one of the chief 
motives for the Mormon pilgrimage to this place was to 
escape the hated jurisdiction of the United States. But, 
within a year after they located here, the territory was 
acquired from Mexico, and they again became unwilling 
and disloyal subjects of our government. When they 
arrived here, there was nothing to promise them requited 
labor and plentiful harvests. The soil was sterile, acrid, 
full of alkali, and refused to produce anything but the 
dreary sage and grease-wood; but Mormon industry flooded 
it with artificial rains, tamed it with corn and buckwheat, 
and now raises as fine wheat, oats, barley, etc. as are grown 
in the Union. Not a shrub or tree shaded this vast desert 
plain when they made it their home ; but they had with 
them the seeds of the locust, and they gathered the little 
cottonwoods along the streams, and now the city is one 
forest of the most heartsome shades, and the gardens are 
covered with the green foliage of every species of fruit 
trees. They seem to have aimed to make this as nearly 
a paradise for the stranger as human effort could make it, 
and they have succeeded better than do most Christians 
in surrounding their homes, from the most humble to the 
most spacious, with the beauty, fragrance, and fruitfulness 
of nature. 

But the peculiar religion, or professed religion, of the 
Mormons, is the most marvelous problem of the age. Here 



168 BRIGHAM YOUNG HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 

are one hundred thousand people, the most industrious, as 
a class, on the face of the earth, — sober, neighborly, of good 
repute as a rule, and most of them sincerely and devoutly 
pious in their way, — who tolerate and sustain in their leaders 
the most arrant swindling and reyolting licentiousness, and 
call it making sacrifices to the Lord. Of the one hundred 
thousand Mormons, nine-tenths are ignorant aliens, who 
were the slaves of the mines or the serfs of the proprietors 
in the old countries. They need but little here to improve 
their condition, and, as a rule, they have been made owners 
of their homes. All they ever did learn, they have learned 
from the Mormons ; and it is not so surprising, therefore, that 
they bow implicitly to the teachings of those they believed 
to be inspired from on high. If I were going to analyze 
the Mormon population, I would set down nineteen of every 
twenty as pitiable dupes, and the remaining one-twentieth 
as the most expert and successful knaves on the earth. 

Brigham Young is the spiritual and temporal head of 
the Church. He assumes to be the successor of Christ, and 
is esteemed b}'^ his deluded followers as of equal power and 
glory with the Saviour. They hold that Jesus was the 
first Messiah, Joseph Smith the second, and Brigham 
Young the third ; and I heard it distinctly taught in the 
tabernacle that Christ, Smith, and Young would come back 
to the earth together, in the fullness of time, to reign with 
the people of God. Accepted as of divine anointment — 
indeed, as being in immediate communication with the 
Almighty, as the oracle through whom God speaks to his 
chosen people, — it is not wonderful that he can riot in 
wealth, pick the fairest and tenderest lambs from the flock 
to gratify his beastly lusts, and have the streets filled Avith 
his children who are fed, clothed, and schooled by the 
labor of his followers. 

I spent half an hour with him in his inner sanctuary; 



THE RELIGIOUS FEATURE OF POLYGAMY. 1G9 

but it was a mere show, — like going to see any other mon- 
strosity. Some half a dozen others were with me, includ- 
ing Mrs. M., and the Prophet was courteous, but reticent. 
He did not know who we might be, and his never-failing 
sagacity made him self-poised and diplomatic in an eminent 
degree. He most adroitly warded off several neat strategic 
movements to get an insight of Mormonism, and kept the 
party to glittering generalities with masterly skill. When- 
ever the conversation became unpleasant for him, he would 
turn to Mrs M. and address her with great elegance and 
fluency on commonplace topics. I had a seat beside his 
oldest son, who w^as not so prudent as the father, and I had 
his view of true Mormonism. " Religion," said he, *' with- 
out plurality of wives in the Lord, is the play of Hamlet 
with Hamlet left out ;" and he gave me a patronizing look, as 
if he pitied my unbelief. I did not venture on a discussion, 
as w^e had merely called to see the lions, and could not, 
in a general conversation, learn much worth knowing. 
Around the house, or rather houses, of Mr. Young, there 
were a score of children, from three to ten years of age, 
most of them girls, with different mothers, but all owning 
Brigham as father. He has some twenty wives who are 
named to him in the flesh, and perhaps twice as many who 
are sealed to him merely to become his spiritual wives in 
heaven. I need not say that these, as a class, are long- 
neglected spinsters and unsightly widows, who have failed 
to gain a union in the flesh. I saw several of them stowed 
away in one corner of the theatre ; and it was not difficult 
to determine why they were merely sealed as wives for the 
spirit-land. I notice that in no instance do the Prophet 
and Elders seal the young and beautiful daughters of the 
church as spiritual wives. Severe as they profess the cross 
to be, they accept them in the flesh, usually to the neglect 
and sorrow of their older partners. In the theatre were 



no BRIG HAM YOUNG'S WIVES. 

six of Brigham's wives in a row, the original wife occnpy- 
ing a comfortable rocking-chair as the honored mother in 
Israel. She looks like a woman of intelligence and refine- 
ment ; but rude furrows have been plowed in her face by 
ever-visible grief. She lives in a cottage by herself, and 
seldom is favored with visits from her lord. The others 
are all women beneath mediocrity, all more or less faded, 
and none bearing the traces of early beauty. They are the 
sobered and practically discarded mistresses of the Prophet, 
and have served their purpose, while other and fairer faces 
usurp the favor they each in turn enjoyed. They are 
relics of the past, and seem to have quietly resigned them- 
selves to their fate. And why should they not? Each 
one, as she became the favorite so-called wife, pushed others 
aside ; and they accepted their degraded position with the 
full knowledge that the passions which were sated with 
their predecessors would in time demand others to take 
their places. The favorite is, of course, the last wife ; and 
while the venerable, unsightly spiritual wives were hud- 
dled in a corner in plainest garb, and those discarded in 
the flesh crowded each other in a row near the centre of 
the parquette, the richly gilded and curtained private box, 
and softly cushioned chair, held the last fair flower trans- 
planted to the harem. She is still gay and festive, has a 
queenly step, sports her elegant opera-glass and the best 
of ribbons and laces. She is the niece of the first wife, and, 
like most babes in large families, is the spoiled child of the 
establishment. Notwithstanding the holy sphere in which 
she moves, she occasionally combs the head of the Prophet 
with a three-legged stool, raises Hail Columbia in the very 
sanctuary of the holies, and smashes a chair over the 
piano to prove her devout affection for the sacred calling 
she has accepted. So revolutionary has she been, in spite 
of divine commands from the very oracles of Heaven, that 



MORMON BELIEF IN REGARD TO WOMEN. HI 

she had to be '' corraled" in a house by herself; and there 
she rules in her own boisterous, obstinate way, and makes 
the Prophet bow at her feet, instead of becoming the meek, 
submissive wife the Church demands of all on pain of eter- 
nal punishment. 

According to the Mormon faith, women have no status in 
heaven excepting such as is given them by their husbands ; 
and, as they cannot be given in marriage there, it is of the 
first importance to all women to become wives. If they 
become the wife of a man Avho has many others, and sad 
crosses and trials result therefrom, they thus lay up for 
themselves bright crowns in heaven. In accordance with 
this belief, it is not uncommon for dying damsels to send 
for high officials in the Church and be sealed to them before 
death, so as to gain a high seat with their spiritual hus- 
bands ; and even the dead are sometimes married by proxy, 
near friends representing them, to lift them up to a level 
with their spiritual lords in the future world. This doc- 
trine is preached daily to the women by men who claim, 
and are believed, to be inspired by God, and as a rule it is 
accepted religiously by the Mormon women. Yet each one 
, struggles to avert the pollution of her own domestic circle, 
and prays that the bitter cup may pass from her. I hear 
of one man who married two wives together who has a 
peaceful household ; but no wife in all Utah has received 
another to divide or rather to usurp the love of her hus- 
band, without consuming sorrows. They bow in submis- 
sion to it, but, in spite of their religious infatuation and 
the promise of a brighter crown above, their womanly 
instincts revolt at it, and they go in grief the remainder 
of their days. 

I wished to learn of Mormonism from its votaries, and 
of polygamy from its advocates and victims. I have met 
its advocates, a class confined to husbands, and heard the 



172 3I0RM0N WIVES. 

best defense of that peculiar feature of their faith; but its 
victims are not accessible to the stranger. I met a few 
Mormon ladies who are wives without presiding over a 
brothel, and the saddest shadow is brought to their faces 
by the slightest reference to the plurality of wives. One 
most intelligent and accomplished wife, who with her hus- 
band professes the Mormon faith and has increased in 
worldly prosperity thereby, advocated the claims of the 
Mormon people to the generous support of the govern- 
ment, with much earnestness. I was about to ask her 
whether she would be willing for her husband to bring an- 
other so-called wife into her house ; but it would have been 
too cruel, and I was silent. It would have ended the con- 
versation, and been regarded as a wanton indignity from a 
guest to a hostess. I have seen one man who has five wives, 
— three of them a mother and two daughters ; others who 
have brought to their homes children of fourteen years and 
made them the reigning queens of their firesides, while 
their lawful wives, often with children older than their 
associates, or rather successors, bow in shame with broken 
hearts. Old men of sixty, dignitaries in the Church, have 
half a dozen or more, from the aged partners of their 
youth, down to the latest fancy, always of the tenderest 
years; and young girls are thus freely sacrificed, by in- 
fatuated parents, to decrepit, lecherous beasts, with the 
firm belief that it is a religious duty and will be rewarded 
in heaven. After a careful observation of this polygamic 
people, I must accept the conviction that the leaders teach 
and practice it simply to gratify their unbridled licentious- 
ness, and they deliberately blaspheme God and his holy 
precepts to maintain their polluting doctrines. Bear in 
mind that polygamy is not general among the Mormon 
people. Not over one-third of the married men have a 
plurality of wives, and they are, as a rule, the bishops. 



MORMON SERVICE IN THE TABERNACLE. I73 

elders, councilors, and other dignitaries, who handle the 
tithings and fatten on the toil of their miserable dupes. 

On Sunday I attended Mormon service in the taberna- 
cle, morning and evening, and heard four sermons. The 
high officials do not attend in the morning, and I was sur- 
prised at the low grade of faces almost uniformly presented. 
There were over one thousand women present, and there 
was scarcely a bright, intelligent, happy face among them. 
In the afternoon the elite of the Church attended with the 
others, the sacrament was administered (as it is every Sun- 
day) and Brigham Young preached. There were fifteen 
hundred women present, and among them were very many 
bright, pretty faces, with lustrous eyes, rosy cheeks, and 
pouting lips that might tempt even a gentile kiss. The 
choir looked like a jolly May-party, — filled with pretty girls, 
with jaunt}^ hats and feathers, and all most tastefully clad. 
'A crazy Cockney opened the service by a rambling har- 
angue demanding equal division of property and wives, 
and cautioning, with peculiar fervor, the "ewes and lambs" 
of the Church against gentile unions. Brigham sat be- 
hind him, and wearied of his erratic doctrines. He first 
tried to stop him by crying out " amen" at an appropriate 
moment; but the inspired minister rushed on. Finally 
Brigham's patience was exhausted, and he seized the 
Cockney by the coat-tail and jerked him down, when the 
Prophet ascended the sacred desk and spoke an hour with 
rare adroitness and perfect fluency. He at once took issue 
with the man who had preceded him, and declared against 
an eqiial division of property. '' Equalize to-morrow," said 
he, ''and how long will it remain equal? Not a month, 
not a week, not an hour. It is folly to talk about it. Not 
one in forty of you can take care of yourselves, and you 
must be dictated to by some one who has experience in 
temporal matters and is inspired on spiritual matters." 

16 



174 THE BLOT OF POLYGAMY. 

After he had shown them that they could not manage 
then' own affah's, he declared that he was their leader by 
divine appointment; he would dictate to them, and they 
must obey. He appealed to the women to be true to the 
faith, and proclaimed it as the will, even the command, of 
the Lord, received directly from Him, that they must not 
trade with g-entiles or apostates, who refuse to give tith- 
ings to the Church. His arrogance, profanity, and fre- 
quent assumption of omnipotent power were shocking; 
but a careful survey of the audience clearly demonstrated 
that he spoke with much worldly wisdom to maintain the 
infatuation and abject submission of his people. After 
church, Sunday was devoted to recreation, and the de- 
lightful gardens of Salt Lake were filled with pleasure- 
parties. 

How long is this blot on the American name to last? 
It is in open violation of law, and yet the law seems 
powerless to vindicate its majesty. Congress has enacted 
that this monstrous crime must cease to pollute the fair- 
est homes, of the Far West. Why does it not enforce 
its own solemn law ? It needs but one season of stern 
justice to scatter it to the winds and drive the bloated im- 
postors from their sore oppression of a deluded people ; 
and morality and public decency demand that it be speedily 
done. 



LETTER XYIIL 

Continued Interruption of Travel. — The Indian Campaigns. — The 
Injustice done the Western People. — Desire of the West for 
Peace. — The Inefficiency of the Military. — Wells, Fargo & 
Co. — Their Horses exposed to Indians for Want of Peed. — No 
Valuable Horses on the Mountain Divisions. — Passengers ex- 
posed to Danger for Want of Stock. — The Stables undefended. 
— No Horses stolen from Defended Stables. — Mr. Holliday. — He 
deranges the Line, and then falls back. — Kindness of the Em- 
ployes of the Company. 

Salt Lake City, June 20, 1867. 
As yet we have no mail-communication from the East 
since the interruption of travel by the Indians west of the 
North Platte ; and, judging from the telegraphic reports, it 
may be a month before there can be anything like regular 
mails again from the terminus of the Pacific Railroad. If 
military matters shall be directed as bunglingly henceforth 
as heretofore, then may the people East and West at once 
abandon all hope of maintaining the overland route this 
season. If General Sherman, with nearly ten thousand 
troops in the departments of Augur and Hancock, and fully 
two thousand of them mounted, could not, in sixty days 
after reaching the Smoky Hill and Platte, protect any fifty 
miles of either of these routes, how long must it require, 
under the same military direction, to protect three hundred 
miles from Platte City to Denver, some three hundred miles 
of the direct line of railroad from Platte City west to the 
mountains, now being located and constructed, and six 
hundred miles from Denver to this city ? Until all these 



lYG INJUSTICE DONE THE WESTERN PEOPLE. 

lines are under military protection, the overland mail can- 
not be run ; and the people of the East can judge as well 
as I can, from the facts stated, how soon our present mili- 
tary system will accomplish this work. 

There is no excuse for the failure of the military com- 
manders to protect the overland route, other than that the}^ 
don't know or won't discharge their duty. General Sherman 
has wasted fully two months in petty quibbling with the 
Western people, and must have known that nearly every 
day lives of settlers and emigrants were wantonly sacri- 
ficed to Indian savagery, and stock and property stolen or 
destroyed, until they now amount to millions in value. I 
doubt not that he was harassed by speculators, contrac- 
tors, and thieves, as he justly complains, and that they 
were most anxious for a general Indian war ; but had he 
covered his glittering stars and spent a few hours in plain 
conversation with intelligent stage-drivers and ranchmen 
on the line — the men who have most to fear from war, and 
who of all others want peace — he might have learned in a 
few hours not only the actual situation, but also the true 
way to meet the peculiar foe that never confronts him and 
yet is ever attacking him. When General Sherman declared 
that ''the people could have an Indian war or not, as they 
chose," not less than fifty people had been butchered within 
his department since the opening of spring, and in not a 
single instance had the victims sought to provoke war, 
unless traveling the great thoroughfare to the West, sup- 
posed to be under his protection, was an act of hostility 
against the red man. I have been on the plains since the 
6th of May, and I deem it as due to truth to say that to the 
obstinacy or imbecility of military management we are 
indebted for the crimsoned record the overland route pre- 
sents this year. The government did everything that 
could have been asked in furnishing men, but to this day 



THE INEFFIENCY OF THE MILTTARY. H^ 

there has been no practical use made of the thousands of 
troops, now nearly as long on the Plains as Sherman 
required to march against a powerful and well-commanded 
foe from Chattanooga to Atlanta. 

I do not know who is to blame for the wasteful expendi- 
ture of money in the character of troops sent to contend 
with Indians. I believe that not more than one-fourth of 
the force west of the Missouri is cavalry; while fully one- 
half of it should be mounted in the West. First of all, the 
troops should be taken from the Far West, as the people of 
the Territories understand the Indian character, cherish the 
intensest hatred toward them, and will fight them ''until 
they can't rest," to use a favorite Western saying. On the 
other hand, the regulars prefer any other sort of warfare 
to Indian warfare. They both despise and fear the savages, 
and fight them only when they cannot avoid it. They 
'have deserted until many regiments are reduced thirty per 
cent., and in some instances, it is believed, have joined the 
Indians in plundering trains. Certain it is that the marks 
of white men have been detected in a number of the raids 
made upon the ranches and stations. Our American horses, 
on which the cavalrymen are mounted, are utterly unfit for 
Indian campaigns. They are heavy, sluggish, and cannot 
march a week without grain ; while the Indian pony and 
broncho will travel all the summer on prairie-grass, and 
outstrip even a well-fed American charger. One thousand 
men from Colorado, Nebraska, or Montana, mounted on 
such horses as they would select, would be worth double 
their number of regular troops mounted as is our regular 
cavalry. It seems to me impossible that these facts, which 
are so patent to every Western man, have not been pressed 
upon the military authorities ; and, if so, upon whom does 
this costly, bloody blunder rest ? 

Since I have been on the overland line, probably not less 
16* 



178 WELLS, FARGO cj- CO. 

than five himclred horses have been stolen by the Indians 
from Wells, Fargo & Co., who run the line and carry the 
Pacific mails. I understand that for this mail service the 
Company are paid some $900,000, and the government en- 
gages to protect the route. After the contract was made, a 
special act of Congress was procured prohibiting the trans- 
mission of transient newspapers, books, or pamphlets, ex- 
cept upon payment of letter-postage. A single copy of the 
" Tribune" cannot be mailed to any point west of Denver 
without the payment of letter-postage, and publishers can- 
not mail books without paying the same rates. The express 
rate for such articles is one dollar per pound, about the same 
as letter-postage. Congress has thus practically given up 
to Wells, Fargo & Co. a monopoly of the mails, exclusive of 
letters, at enormous rates, as the responsibility of a com- 
pany of common carriers gives them a positive preference 
over the Post-Office Department. 

Hitherto every horse taken by the Indians, and all 
property destroyed on this line, has been paid for by Con- 
gress, in accordance with the terms of the contract. As 
I have no knowledge of the facts, I do not question the 
honesty of the claims thus made and paid, but of the claims 
to be made for the losses of stock this spring, while I was 
traversing the route, I feel constrained to say a word. As 
we had rumors of Indians and Indian depredations from the 
first station at the western terminus of the railroad to Den- 
ver, three hundred miles, and also from Laporte to Green 
River on the mountains, a distance of three hundred and 
fifty miles, I made it a point to look into every station, and 
learn the actual condition of affairs, and the measures taken 
to protect the lives of the station-keepers and the stock. Not 
one-half of the " swing-stations" (stables where the teams 
are changed) had so much as a single gun of any kind, and 
not one-fourth of them had taken any measures whatever 



THE CARELESSNESS OF THE COMPANY. 179 

to defend the stock. At the ranches owned by individuals, 
there were always rifles in readiness, often tunnels to outer 
fortifications, and invariably some sort of defensive lines. 
" Old Wicked," of whom I wrote in a former letter, with 
three men to aid him, repulsed a regular attack upon his 
ranche made by one hundred and fifty savages, and saved 
his goods and stock, two years ago, while every stage-sta- 
tion was cleared and most of the horses stolen. Nine- 
tenths of the raids made upon the Platte stations this 
spring could have been repulsed by three well-armed men, 
always on the alert to prevent a surprise ; and there are not 
less than that number at a station. Had the precaution been 
taken by Wells, Fargo & Co. (the ordinary diligence and 
care that the law requires of every individual), more than 
half the horses stolen on the Platte would have been pro- 
tected and saved. The Indians are proverbial cowards, and 
'Will never fight at a disadvantage, however sure of success, 
and they have rarely raided the stations in numbers so 
large that several well-armed men, protected by stables or 
ranches, could not have repulsed them. We read daily of 
their capture of trains and the murder of train-men ; but 
they never attack excepting where the train is scattered 
and portions can be cut off, or when they can be surprised 
and the stock stampeded. Such a thing as a square, stand- 
up fight for a train has not occurred in all the Indian depre- 
dations this year. 

But west of Denver, where probably three hundred 
horses have been captured from the stage-line within the 
last month, the carelessness of the Company has been so 
marked that I cannot resist the conviction that it was delib- 
erately planned to have them captured. Let me give you a 
simple statement of facts as i\\ej came under my own per- 
sonal observation. A company using thousands of horses 
must necessarily always have a large number nearly or quite 



180 THE HORSES EXPOSED FOR WANT OF FEED. 

worn out. I found none such between Platte City and 
Denver, and none from Denver west until I reached the 
countr}^ infested by the Indians, and there I found none fit 
for service. From Big Laramie to Laclede, a distance of two 
hundred miles, where the Indians were troublesome, there 
was not a team of horses fit to drive, and the Company took 
no measures whatever to save them from capture. In all the 
raids made upon this part of the line — most of which were 
made while I was traveling west — there was not a single 
occupied station captured, and not a single horse stolen that 
was stabled. Bear in mind that, although earl}^ in June, we 
waded through snow-storms daily, and vegetation was so 
late that stock could scarcely live on the grass, and yet for 
more than one hundred miles of this part of the line there 
was not a pound of grain for the stock, and there had 
not been any for a month, and not one station in five had 
had hay to feed for six weeks, some having been out as much 
as two months. The broken-down horses have been placed 
on this part of the line; there was no grain or hay to feed 
them, and every horse captured, so far as I could learn, was 
taken while out grazing his scanty meal, when he should 
have been in the stable feeding on grain and hay. I stated 
these facts to Mr. Tracy, the General Superintendent, who 
passed me west of Fort Bridger, and he gave as an excuse 
for Wells, Fargo & Co. that they came into possession of 
the line too late last fall to suppl}^ it properly with forage. 
This may be so, and is something in extenuation of the 
total neglect to have proper food for the stock ; but when 
hundreds of horses are stolen because the predecessor of 
Mr. Tracy failed to do his duty, does the government be- 
come responsible ? But the excuse offered was not wholly 
true. At Cooper's Creek we found, as a rule, the end of grain 
and hay on the line. But one hundred miles southeast, at 
Laporte, grain and hay are abundant in market at reason- 



THE STABLES UNDEFENDED. 181 

able prices, and they could have been supplied without 
difficulty. At North Platte there was but a single bag of 
grain, and that belonged to the station-keeper. After much 
bargaining, w^e got it for our two four-horse teams intended 
to take us through to Sulphur Spring ; and even with that, 
and a liberal time for the horses to graze at noon, the 
horses in one of our teams had to be taken out on the way 
and were abandoned on the road, in a trip of forty-five miles, 
with but six persons to a wagon. At Pine Grove and 
Bridger Pass stations the horses had been stolen the day 
before we arrived, because they were out grazing on grass 
insufficient to satisfy their hunger. Bridger Pass station 
was attacked at the same time, and successfully defended 
by the men ; but, as the stock was gone, they abandoned it, 
as did the occupants of Pine Grove, because they had no- 
thing to defend that was worth risking their lives for. At 
,Sulphur Spring station, where there were twenty men, six- 
teen head of horses and mules were captured the day I ar- 
rived there. The stock was out browsing under the snow, 
because of the want of grain and hay, and no ordinary 
number of men could defend them. No attempt was made 
to capture the stable. At Waskie, in view of Indians seen 
by our party on the bluffs as we left Sulphur, the stock was 
grazing out of sight, because there was no feed, and two 
days after it Avas captured. At Laclede I found eighty- 
three head of horses, seventy-three of which belonged to 
the Company, and but a few herders, and not a single gun 
to defend them. Even the few men there, without arms, 
make the stable and building safe ; but the miserable stock 
had to be turned out to hunt up a scanty subsistence on 
the prairies, and the Indians watched their opportunity and 
bagged sixty-five of them. The next Congress will doubt- 
less be applied to for restitution for some three hundred 
good horses stolen on this part of the line, when in fact I did 



182 MR. HOLLIDAY DERANGES THE LINE. 

not see a single good horse, or more than a half-priced 
horse, on the two hundred miles raided by the Indians, and 
not one was taken that was stabled as ordinary care re- 
quired. The traveling public must bear the inconv^enience 
of disabled teams in the mountains ; but when they are so 
placed as to invite the raids of the savage, and the govern- 
ment expected to pay the Company double or treble value 
for practically handing their stock over to the Indians, it 
is cutting it rather fat ! 

We had practical evidence of Mr. Ben Holliday's appre- 
ciation of the condition of things on the line. He is a Di- 
rector of the Company, one of its largest stockholders, and 
was on his wa}^ East as I was journeying West. He was 
about to start from Salt Lake as I started from North 
Platte ; and as we dragged our way through the Indian 
country we were delayed and badgered from place to place, 
because the horses able to travel had to be saved up to put 
Mr. HoUiday through. We found one team at a number 
of stations resting up for his benefit, while the crippled 
stock, as was usual, were out grazing when we arrived at 
the stations, and we had to wait until it was driven in 
(not a difficult operation), harnessed, and hitched to the 
coach. He had orders all along the line for resting the 
best horses, and for an escort of the employes from station 
to station, while he left the poor station-keepers at the mercy 
of the savages, three or four at a stable, and often without 
a gun to defend themselves from the seal ping-knife. After 
thus deranging the line for two hundred miles, he arrived 
at Weber, fifty miles east of this city, and then con- 
cluded that discretion was the better part of valor, and 
retraced his steps to California, to return b}^ steamer. With 
command of the entire stock and emplo}- es of the line, after 
periling the lives of all on the route by holding the best 
drivers and teams, and deranging the stock not given over 



KINDNESS OF THE RAILROAD EMPLOYES. 183 

to the Indians by systematic neglect, he would not venture 
to pass over the thoroughfare that he invites the public to 
travel daily at the liberal rate of twenty cents per mile. 

It is due to the employes, and indeed all the ranchmen 
and other persons on the line, to say that they were 
uniformly courteous and kind ; and our party will ever 
cherish most grateful recollections of their efforts to con- 
tribute to our comfort and safety. I cannot recall a single 
instance of neglect or discourtesy on the part of any one 
on the route from Denver to this place — a distance of six 
hundred miles. Their rude shelter and often scanty stores 
were ever freely given us ; and they were tireless in their 
efforts to smooth the many rough places of the journey. 



LETTER XIX. 

A Delightful Journey through Mormondom. — How Brigham 
"dictates" to the Faithful. — The Bishops and their Revenues, 
— How they assist the Poor. — The Mormon Industrial System 
a Success. — Ogden City. — Bishop West and his Eight Wives. — 
How a Mormon Bishop luxuriates. — The Prairie-Flowers. — 
Bear River. — Countless Mosquitoes and Gnats. — Passengers 
and Driver veiled. — Idaho. — Appropriate Names of Stations. — 
Climbing the Rocky Range again. 

Snake River, Idaho Terr., June 21, 1867. 
We had a delightful journey from Salt Lake northward 
to this point. The weather was pleasant, the roads good, 
the teams spirited, and the country beautiful. The tourist 
never wearies of the study of the industrial system of the 
Mormons. I doubt whether any other association ever 
attained such a degree of perfection in the division, gov- 
ernment, and success of labor. In the remotest parts of 
Utah the same system, industry, and thrift prevail, and, 
whether scattered in settlements or crowded in cities, the 
Mormons are subject to the same peculiar laws, and they 
are enforced with scrupulous care. No Mormon is in any 
sense his own master, unless he is one of the very few who 
belong to the governing class. I heard Brigham Young 
say to three thousand of his people, in a sermon, that with- 
out some one to ''dictate" to them how to manage their 
affairs, both temporal and spiritual, they would soon be 
scattered to the four winds of heaven ; and he did not for- 
get to add that '' we, the chosen oracles of the Lord," 
(184) 



BRIGIIAM ^'DICTATES'' TO THE FAITHFUL. 185 

must ''dictate" to the faithful. This doctrine he enforces 
relentlessly. In Salt Lake City the Saints dare not sell 
their own houses without the consent of the President, 
and in the rural settlements the rule has no exception, 
save when the iron yoke becomes intolerable and apostasy 
is preferred to submission. 

When emigrants are landed in Utah, they are brought 
to Salt Lake, an inventory of their cash, stock, and worldly 
goods in general is taken, and the men are examined as 
to the particular branch of industry for which they are 
best fitted. The church bishop has a record of the con- 
dition of every settlement, of the number of acres still 
uncultivated that can be irrigated, and of the wants of 
each community respecting all kinds of labor. The emi- 
grants are then directed where to go and what to do. If 
they have means, they are instructed how and where to 
invest; and if they are destitute, they are directed to the 
proper bishop for a start in the world. Each ward in 
every city, and each settlement, however small, has a 
bishop, whose duty it is to " dictate" to the saints in all 
things, spiritual and temporal, and especially to see that 
no one withholds any part of his tithings from the Church. 
When an emigrant reaches the place to which he is 
assigned, he reports to the bishop and obeys orders. If 
destitute, the bishop assigns him two, five, or ten acres of 
Uncle Sam's land, sells him a yoke of cattle, wagon, and 
seeds, takes his note, and puts him to ditching and plant- 
ing. Each year the new settler reports his products to 
the bishop, and they are disposed of as he directs. First 
of all, one-tenth is taken for the Church, a portion is allowed 
for the family, another portion for seed, and the residue is 
appropriated on account of the debt for the outfit, until 
all is paid with interest. Over this fund, into which the 
tithing is gathered, the bishops have immediate control, 

n 



186 THE MORMON INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM. 

but report regularly to the President. They give to the 
poor when the necessity is imperative, but never fail to 
demand restitution if it can be recovered even years after- 
ward. One of the first duties required, when a new farm 
is opened, is the planting of all kinds of fruits ; and the 
result is that in every settlement the houses are first 
recognized by the clusters of green foliage or fragrant 
blossoms which surround them. 

As an industrial system the Mormon Church is a positive 
success, and challenges the admiration of the most em- 
bittered foes of this peculiar religious faith. I did not 
see a single, home of a Mormon where there were signs of 
dilapidation or decay. It is forbidden by their faith, and 
the bishops see that no sluggards bring reproach upon their 
religion. For nearly one hundred miles north of Salt Lake 
City there are numerous Mormon settlements nestling 
between the Great Lake and the Wasatch range, and they 
dot the earth with fruitfulness and beauty. The wild 
flowers are thick on every side, and climb over every home, 
however humble. At one place I saw a beautiful hedge 
of the wild rose, carefully trimmed, and blooming in pro- 
fusion. On the route there are several towns or cities of 
note. Ogden contains a population of over two thousand, 
and has excellent buildings, stores, and gardens. Two of 
Bishop West's eight wives (the second and eighth) keep the 
hotel in the city in a most creditable manner. His other 
six live on his farms, at his mills, etc., while he rotates 
around generally among them. He supplies the faithful 
with bitters by the small at his bar, manufactures their 
grain into flour and whisky, preaches on Sunday, and sees 
that every tenth egg the Ogden chickens lay is properly re- 
turned to his tithing-house. Brigham City is another Mor- 
mon village, of over one thousand inhabitants, and bears 
the many evidences of well-directed industry which charac- 



BEAR RIVER. 181 

terize all the residences of the Saints. The strip of land 
between the Lake and the Wasatch, prairies from five to 
twenty miles in width, is one of the most beautiful sections 
of Utah. From every settlement the lake is visible, and, 
while the prairie and the fields are green with verdure 
and variegated with every hue of the rose, the Wasatch 
and the Lake Mountains are capped with snow. Some of 
the mountain-islands seem to be entirely bare of grass or 
timber, and the sun gives them a pale pink color, which is 
reflected in the shadows of the lake, and, with the deep 
lines of blue which encircle the island, and the white 
crowns of the waves, represent the various colors of the 
rainbow. As we came near to Bear River the land became 
more sterile, and the settlements were not so frequent. 
But, even where the soil seemed to repel the settler, the 
prairie abounded in every variety of wild flowers. The 
cactus was in full bloom, presenting almost every shade in 
its flower, from its favorite pale yellow to the brightest 
pink; and mingled with it w^ere countless varieties of 
Nature's offerings to beautify the plain, from the huge 
sunflower down to the modest little daisy that shelters its 
delicate tints among the sage and grass. 

Bear River is the end of Mormon settlements. It cuts 
its way through the Wasatch range, leaving almost per- 
pendicular walls, hundreds of feet in height, on each side, 
and has washed out a deep bed in the prairie. It is quite 
a large stream, and the most northern of the leading tribu- 
taries of Salt Lake. I found it most remarkable for the size, 
quantity, and vigor of its mosquitoes. We took a square 
meal down under its high banks, and the mosquitoes and 
gnats were so thick that we could scarcely see each other 
across the table. The gnats literally darkened the windows 
in their persistent efforts to get inside and devour us while 
we were taking tea. I need not say that we broke bread 



188 APPROPRIATE NAMES OF STATIONS. 

as briefly as possible with the hostess of Bear River, and 
rejoiced to get out on the prairie again. But north of the 
river I found that we had only escaped from several billions 
of the winged varmints to meet with a million or so ; and 
there was but little in favor of the plains. Fortunately, we 
were all provided with coarse veils — an article that no 
traveler pretends to dispense with on the northern route 
— and we all veiled ourselves closely, including the driver. 
The poor horses suffered intensely, for the mosquitoes and 
gnats literally covered them, and they had to be driven at 
a gallop to keep them manageable. Twelve miles distant 
we reached Mound Springs, on high ground, and a stiff, 
chilling breeze settled nature's blood-letters for the night. 
Some fifteen miles north of Bear River is the line be- 
tween Utah and Idaho ; and thenceforth there are no more 
orchards or cultivated fields. At Malade City I saw the 
last field for five hundred miles. It is a settlement of the 
Josephites (anti-polygamy or Smithite branch of the Mor- 
mon Church). They crossed the line to get away from the 
dominion of the Brighamites, and, but for the higher alti- 
tude and colder climate, would compare favorably with 
the Brighamites in the fruits of their industry. They 
have two settlements in Idaho, one at Malade City, and 
another at Soda Springs. From Malade north there is 
nothing that can ever invite the settler, unless the precious 
metals should be discovered in the bluff's and gulches. 
** Devil's Creek," ''Robbers' Retreat," ''Desert Wells," 
" Rattlesnake," and " Stinking Water" are the euphonious 
titles of as many stations ; and no one who travels the 
route will deny their appropriateness. " Robbers' Retreat" 
is memorable as the place where the stage was robbed 
some two years ago, and seven passengers murdered. It is 
in Port Neuf Canon, one of the most repulsive, dreary passes 
I found in the mountain-trip of one thousand miles. The 



SNAKE RIVER. 189 

weather in the region between the northern and southern 
lines of Idaho is universally described as consisting of 
nine months of a hard winter and three months of a very 
cold spell. In the entire two hundred miles across Idaho 
I saw nothing but the most sterile prairies, wild mountain- 
passes, and the bleakest of bluff's. 

This evening we reached Snake River before sunset, 
and had several hours' rest. It is a large river, and at 
this place, known as Eagle Rock, the n^ain channel is over 
sixty feet in depth, and the current very swift. It is 
unusually high, and great fears are entertained for the 
rude bridge that spans it, as the coaches could not be 
ferried over it at any point at this time. It is one of the 
main tributaries of the Columbia River, and heads at the 
base of the Rocky range, near the Montana line, and has 
many tributaries from the east, but none from the west. 
Some seventy miles north of this the summit of the Rocky 
range is reached, and there the waters divide between the 
Missouri and the Columbia: the two great rivers which 
drain the Far Northwest, and course their ways respect- 
ively to the Pacific and the Gulf, there have their sources 
within a stone's throw of each other. 

But the coach is about to start ; and I must make my 
second effort to climb the Rocky range to-night. I hope 
to find it at least more agreeable than was Bridger's Pass, 
where I warmed myself by the fire of burning stations 
with the fresh tracks of the Sioux thick around me in the 
snow. 



17' 



LETTER XX. 

A Night-Eide on the Summit of the Eocky Eange, — The Mos- 
quitoes again.— Pleasant Yalley Station a Fraud. — Parting of the 
"Waters on the Summit to the Eastern and Western Seas. — The 
Source of the Missouri and Columbia Eivers. — The Snake Eiver, 
— Its Tortuous Course through the Mountains. — The Stinking- 
Water Eiver. — Virginia City. — Its First Settlers.— Alder Gulch. 
—Its Wonderful Yield of Gold.— Belt of Eich Mines.— The Pre- 
cious Metals of Montana. — Agricultural Eesources of the Terri- 
tory. — Irregularity of the Mails. — Wells, Pargo & Co.'s Special 
Mails. — A Premium paid for Neglect to convey the Mails. — 
How to test the Safety of the Overland Eoute. 

Virginia City, Montana Terr., June 27, 1867. 
After a pleasant evening at Snake River, we crossed 
the frail bridge, then swaying to and fro before the violence 
of the current (and since swept away), and started for a 
night-ride toward the summit of the Rocky range. The 
mosquitoes were eminently sociable, and forbade sleep in 
the coach. Our coarse veils were of little use ; for they 
would touch the face at some points, and just there our 
tormentors would settle, like a swarm of bees lighting on 
the green, and present their inexorable demand for blood. 
Even toward midnight, when it was so cold that I had to 
wrap my thick blanket around over my great-coat, the mos- 
quitoes wearied not in their efforts to forage upon us. They 
seem to be perfectl}^ acclimated in this region, and defy the 
chilling blasts of the snow-clad mountains hard by. As we 
reached the higher bluffs, a most welcome breeze greeted 
us, and cleared our path of the buzzing and biting pests. 
(190) 



NIGHT ON THE ROCKY RANGE SUMMIT. 191 

Early in the morning" we reached Pleasant Yalley station 
for breakfast. I had noticed its enticing name on the little 
guide-book, and had grateful anticipations of a delightful 
mountain-home, but was doomed to disappointment. Of 
all the filthy, repulsive stations on the route. Pleasant Val- 
ley is the worst. It consists of a narrow gulch between 
two high bluffs, and we could not get out of the coach into 
the station without plunging into mud ankle-deep. It fur- 
nishes us one of the regular "square meals" of the most 
primitive life in this primitive land. A miserable apology 
for coffee, no butter or milk, stale eggs and bacon, and 
bread almost as gritty as the mountain boulders, constituted 
our breakfast. I need not say that we partook most spar- 
ingly, paid our two dollars each, and waded out as speedily 
as possible. Let me say, however, for the " home-stations," 
that, in fifteen hundred miles of staging on the plains and 
through the mountains, I can recall but two meals that 
were not inviting, and, upon the whole, no better fare would 
be found traveling in the States. 

Nine miles from Pleasant Yalley we reached the summit, 
the dividing line between Idaho and Montana, and the 
grand divide of the great waters of the Northwest. Just 
on the summit numerous little springs start, and soon unite, 
to form Red Butte Creek, the southernmost source of the 
Father of Waters. Black Tail Deer and Stinking Water 
rising farther east on the range, and Horse Plain and Big 
Hole on the west, form Jefferson River, the main source of 
the Missouri ; while, still farther east, the Madison and 
Gallatin rise in the mountains, drain and irrigate fruitful 
valleys, and unite at Gallatin City, some sixty miles north 
of this place, to form the Missouri. The Snake River 
courses southwest from the summit until it reaches close 
to the southern line of Idaho, when it describes a semi- 
circle northward, thence runs nearly due north to Lewis- 



192 VIRGINIA CITY. 

town, on the Idaho and Washing-ton line, within one hun- 
dred miles of the British boundary, when it sweeps around 
southwest again, and unites with the Columbia at Walla- 
Walla. It is to the Columbia what the Missouri is to the 
Mississippi — a tributary greater than the river that re- 
ceives its waters and ends its history and name. It drains 
Idaho, and all of Oregon west of the Cascade range, and 
a large portion of Washington. I have no data before me 
to make an accurate estimate of the distance this remark- 
able stream traverses in reaching the ocean, but it must be 
fully fifteen hundred miles in its tortuous windings to find 
a water-grade from the top of the Rocky range to the 
Pacific coast. I crossed it at Eagle Rock, not one hundred 
miles from its source, and there it was over sixty feet deep 
in the main channel, and nearly one hundred yards from 
shore to shore. Like the Platte and the Green, however, 
it will ever defy the navigators, lending no assistance to 
the march of commerce. 

From the summit, the overland line traverses the same 
bleak, sterile, and broken country we left on the other side, 
in Idaho, and no sign of cultivation is visible until Vir- 
ginia City is reached, and here there is no pretense of rear- 
ing more than sickly flowers and some vegetables in the 
gardens. Some distance from the city we struck the head- 
waters of Stinking River, and followed it for some miles. 
It gained its repulsive title from the fact that it was once 
the favorite deposit for the Indian dead. Instead of burying 
their deceased comrades in the earth, they wrapped them 
in their blankets and robes, and gave them sepulchres in 
the forks of trees or on elevated poles, causing, as the 
miners say, the most "flagrant fragrance." The stream 
has a rapid descent, and is admirably located for irrigation, 
but it has no valley of sufficient width to be productive. 

Virginia City, the capital of the Territory, was founded 



THE SNAKE RIVER. 193 

in 18G3, and was originally called Yarina, in honor of the 
wife of Jefferson Davis. The first settlers were mainly 
rebels, and to this day they have maintained their suprem- 
acy in this portion of Montana. Alder Gulch, of which 
Virginia was originally but the mining camp, was the 
richest gulch of the size ever found in any of our gold re- 
gions. It first built up a considerable mining town a mile 
below Virginia, called Nevada ; but it has gone into dilapi- 
dation, and is practically abandoned. Out of this gulch 
millions of gold have been taken. For ten miles it has been 
worked, some places as much as five hundred yards in 
width, and at its head are now found the richest quartz 
leads. Although every bushel of earth in the gulch has 
already been panned, still, it is lined with miners, who are 
now bringing the more improved systems to work it over 
again profitably. Ditches have been brought from lakes 
ten miles distant, and the hydraulic process is at present 
washing down the hard banks and sluicing the once- 
worked earth. A number of quartz-mills have alread}^ been 
erected on the leads at the head of this gulch, and, when 
brought down to proper management and legitimate enter- 
prise, must make immense returns to mill-owners. It is 
admitted, I believe, that no better-denned or richer leads 
are to be found on the continent than in the summit dis- 
trict. Imperfect machinery, worse direction, and impatient, 
ill-advised, and wasteful efforts at development have made 
failures on mines where practical men would gather for- 
tunes. 

This whole belt, or rather the entire mass of broken and 
confused ranges, seems to be studded with the precious 
metals. Helena has taken a sudden start, and now dis- 
tances this city in population and enterprise. Most pro- 
ductive gulches are being w^orked there, and very rich gold 
and silver mines have been developed and tested by mills. 



194 THE PRECIOUS METALS OF 310 NT AN A. 

Argenta, forty miles distant, has silver mines which yield 
from $100 to $400 per ton, and the lead, or litharge, is 
worth $250 per ton at the furnace. The litharge is eighty 
per cent, pure lead, and lead is now worth thirty cents per 
pound wholesale. It will in a short time become cheaper, 
and supplant wood for roofing. I learn that one company 
will shortly turn out sheet-lead for that purpose. Deer 
Lodge, west from here of a high mountain range, has also 
developed very valuable gold and silver mines, and rich 
gulches are being worked there ; and Edgerton and Jeffer- 
son, directly north of this, are yielding largely of both 
silver and gold. As yet, the Montana miners have not had 
to contend with the base metals, as in Colorado; but, as 
they descend in their mines, they will meet with them 
more or less. Their leads are yet in the infancy of de- 
velopment, and at no point that I have been able to hear 
from have they reached a depth sufficient to prove the 
measure of richness of the Montana gold leads. While in 
California they must sink down a considerable depth to 
get paying ore, here they work ore from the grass-roots 
at a profit, with labor and all expenses thrice as high. 
Laborers command $5 per day ; miners, engineers, etc., 
from $6 to $8 ; and most of the ore is raised by shafts, to 
hasten operations, instead of tunneling and waiting until 
proper systematic development is attained. I have seen 
ore worked profitably that costs $25 per ton to deliver it 
from the mines, while in California the same ore would be 
delivered at about $3. The hills in which the valuable 
leads are found are singularly adapted to the cheap deliv- 
ery of ore by tunnels. Most of the mines I have seen could 
be reached by tunnels of a few hundred feet, and then be 
struck at a great depth from the surface. In a few years 
the mines will be worked as they should be. Speculative 
companies will die out in bankruptcy, and practical men 



FUTURE PROSPECTS OF MONTANA. I95 

will make the mountains yield fabulous quantities of gold 
and silver. 

When it is considered that these mines have not been 
known more than four years, that they have been almost 
inaccessible for machinery until one year ago, and then 
only by the perilous overland route or the almost equally 
perilous waters of the Missouri, it is wonderful indeed 
that human energy could have accomplished what it has ac- 
complished here. It is not strange that its quartz mining is 
most imperfect in both machinery and management, and 
thereby rendered comparatively unproductive. Notwith- 
standing all these obstacles, Montana is second only to 
California in her yield of gold, and will this year go up 
to fully twenty millions of treasure, with a gradual in- 
crease from year to year, as legitimate enterprise is dis- 
played in her mines of almost boundless extent and bewil- 
dering wealth. I doubt whether any part of the world 
will yield such large returns on the same capital and labor 
as will Montana, in time. Just now the best scientific 
talent is directed to the mastery of our Rocky Mountain 
ores ; each year will simplify and cheapen their reduction ; 
capital and energy will come armed with the improvements 
science may offer, and make Montana, now with but four 
years of history, the great centre of the production of the 
precious metals on this continent. It has the experience 
of the older mining Territories to profit by, and its almost 
impassable mountains have been a wall of protection 
against mad speculation and the waste of millions to par- 
alyze legitimate corporations. Colorado is cursed by specu- 
lative corporations, which have not vitality enough to live 
and not sense enough to die, and they sit in idleness and 
bankruptcy upon valuable mines ; but Montana is open to 
practical business enterprise, and will well repay those 
who thus come to develop her surpassing richness. 



196 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 

In addition to the vast mineral wealth of Montana, the 
production of breadstuffs is now quite equal to the con- 
sumption. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, and most vegetables, 
are raised here in the valleys in wonderful perfection. It 
will startle Eastern farmers to read that wheat-fields in 
Montana have produced eighty bushels to the acre ; but it 
is certainly true. Corn cannot be grown here, as the season 
is too short. Cattle graze out all the winter in the valleys, 
and usually keep in excellent order. Last winter, how- 
ever, many were lost from the uncommon severity of the 
weather; but during any ordinary winter the cattle will 
sustain themselves comfortably on the grass. Even as far 
north as Fort Benton they graze their stock all the year. 
The finest agricultural portion of the Territory is still un- 
inhabited, save by the savages. The Yellowstone region 
has the most salubrious climate north of the Platte ; and 
it must soon be surrendered by the red man, and blossom 
with beauty and plenty to reward the husbandman. 

The irregularity of the mails to this Territory is ter- 
rible. Of the " Tribune," thirty copies of the daily are 
now due me here, and I have received but two. Of the 
'' Times," sent me semi- weekly since the 1st of May, I have 
received but one number. Letters or papers mailed in 
Wells, Fargo & Co.'s mail-bags come promptly. At Salt 
Lake I received papers and letters through that channel 
before the same dates had reached Denver by mail. The 
government pays Wells, Fargo & Co. $1,000,000 or so to 
carry the mails ; but they lose so much mail-matter that 
business men are glad to pay them treble postage, in addi- 
tion to the government postage, to insure prompt trans- 
mission of papers and letters. They carry more than 
half the letters from Salt Lake to California in their special 
mails, and have government envelopes, with Wells, Fargo 
& Co.'s stamp on, which are bought and used to guard 



NEGLECT TO CONVEY THE MAILS. I97 

against the loss or delay of mail-matter. While Wells, 
Fargo & Co. are permitted to have special mails, carried 
at a large extra profit, they have every inducement to 
confuse, delay, and lose the regular mails, so as to com- 
pel correspondents to pay them, in addition to their gov- 
ernment compensation, twice or thrice established postal 
rates; and they have not been slow to avail themselves 
of this advantage. If they can carr}^ letters and papers 
through in regular time in their own special mails, why 
cannot they bring the regular mails through in the same 
time? They have contracted to deliver them promptly, 
and, save when stopped by a public enem}^, their failure to 
do so must be the result of carelessness or a want of the 
necessary coach-room and teams, all of which they have 
obligated themselves to furnish. I found at different sta- 
tions on the way tons of mails piled up ; and sometimes 
mail-bags are scattered along the road, apparently dropped 
off and carelessly abandoned. If Congress would have 
the Far West supplied promptly with mails, for which an 
ample sum is paid now, the right to compete with the 
mails must be taken from the Company, and the contract 
enforced rigidly. But one coach has been captured by the 
Indians on the plains this spring, and yet tons of mail- 
matter have been lost. Where is it? Will the govern- 
ment make the inquiry in earnest? 

I have, as yet, no means of knowing the condition of 
things on the mountain-line between Denver and Salt 
Lake ; but I beg leave to suggest to the military and stage 
authojities that they test the safety of the route before 
they expose travelers hereafter, as heretofore. Let Mr. 
Ben Holliday, for instance, take passage in a coach at Jules- 
burg, or Junction, for Salt Lake, with Lieutenant-General 
Sherman as escort. Let them have the best of horses for 
changes along the line, and invite visits from the ''friend- 

18 



198 SAFETY OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 

lies" by turning the advance teams out to graze, so that 
Sherman, Holliday & Co. may exercise themselves, as I 
did, in helping to catch their teams at the stations. They 
would doubtless need some hair restoratives before they 
got through ; but, as it is their business to protect and 
carry passengers, it would be equally their business if 
they should part with any of their hair. The route once 
thus traveled and officially reported upon could thereafter 
be held out to the public as a thoroughfare meriting 
patronage. Until then, passengers who do not prefer to 
be scalped had better stay at home, or select some other 
route. 



LETTER XXI. 

Eeluctant Parting with tlie Mormons, — The Beauty of Mormon 
Homes — They labor for Beauty and Plenty. — The Ogden 
Bishop again. — The Sterile Waste across Idaho. — The Mosqui- 
toes and Gnats. — The Station-Men and their Pets. — A New and 
Novel Apartment. — Mice in the Place of Cats and Dogs. — A 
"Square Meal" at Pleasant Valley. — A Good Supper and Grate- 
ful Best at Black Tail Deer.— The Last Fifty Miles.— Sleeping 
in the Coach. — The Welcome Moon. — The God of Day gilding 
the Eocky Domes. 

Virginia City, June 28, 1867. 
With all their faults, I left the land of the Saints reluc- 
tantly. We had pleasant quarters at the Revere House — 
the best hotel west of Chicago, and kept by a gentile who 
seems to have no fear of the Mormons before his eyes — and 
the heartsome shades, fresh vegetables, delicious straw- 
berries, together with the thousand novelties to be seen, 
all conspired to make the visit a delightful one. The Mor- 
mon theatre is one of the best structures inside that is de- 
voted to public amusements in the Union. It is quite large, 
most tastefully finished, has three galleries besides a large 
parquette (where only the Saints are admitted excepting 
by special permission), an excellent orchestra, and the 
acting was above the average, although almost entirely by 
amateurs. The Mormon services at the tabernacle on Sun- 
day are also decidedly amusing, and partake largely of 
comedy. Some of Brigham's best profanity repeatedly 
''brought down the house," and his sallies of wit and 
sarcasm often made the vast building echo with the merry 

(199) 



200 THE BEAUTY OF MORMON HOMES. 

peals of laughter which followed. In short, Salt Lake City 
is a jolly place for the tourist, and as it is always reached 
after a tedious journey over the bleak ranges and often 
sterile plains of the mountains, its pleasant features are the 
more keenly appreciated. But more than ten days could 
not be spared to enjoy the good things and curiosities of 
the Saints, and on the 19th I had to bid farewell to Brigham 
and his harem and the enticing shades, sweet fruits, and 
rippling streams of the City of the Saints. But, although 
taking leave of the great centre of Mormondom, we did not 
get away from Mormon thrift and beauty for nearly one 
hundred miles on our northward trip toward the mountains. 
A little valley bounded on the east by the Wasatch range 
and on the West by the Great Salt Lake, ranging in width 
from five to twenty-five miles, is thickly dotted with Mor- 
mon settlements, and has several cities of from one thou- 
sand to two thousand population. The homes of the Saints 
all along the route have the same peculiarities which mark 
their residences in their chief city. Every house is in a 
cluster of fruit-trees, and every garden is green and beau- 
tiful with fruits and flowers. It would seem to be a part 
of their religion to beautify every home, however humble, 
and in no single instance did I see the signs of dilapidation 
about their little farms. Their farms are assigned to them 
by the bishop of the settlement, and all of them are quite 
small — ranging from two to twenty acres, as the new 
farmer may be able to cultivate it well. Let no one sup- 
pose that because the homes and gardens and fields of the 
Mormons are ever beautiful and fruitful they are easily 
made so. In no part of the entire Union, where agricul- 
ture is the main dependence of the settlers, must the farmer 
toil so long and so untiringly to make the earth produce. 
Naturally it is sterile, and boasts of only the sage and 
grease-wood as its products. It has to be cleared, broken 



THE OGDEN BISHOP AGAIN. 201 

up by powerful teams, and even then denies a harvest to the 
sower unless he is prepared to supply it with artificial rains 
during the entire summer season. He must have a main 
ditch for every patch, level the inequalities of the surface, 
so that water will flow over it regularly, and then have 
numerous small ditches to carry moisture to every tree or 
plant he aims to grow. None but Mormons, most of whom 
were the slaves in the Old World who labored for the 
titled classes, could have made the Salt Lake Yalley thus 
cast off its natural sterility and clothe itself in the rich ver- 
dure of plenty. 

At Ogden, a beautiful Mormon town of two thousand 
people, we stopped for dinner, and were well entertained in 
a large modern hotel, presided over by two wives (second 
and eighth) of Bishop West, and surrounded by a garden 
blooming with flowers and most luxuriant in its growth of 
vegetables. One of the eight wives waited on the table, 
and the other did the honors in the parlor, proving herself 
as agreeable in her part as the other was expert in the 
culinary art. The master of the harem was not visible, 
and probably dined with some one of the other six of his 
fair partners. In addition to retailing whisky to the faith- 
ful, it is his business to gather the tithing for that rich 
settlement ; and he seems not to lose in worldly goods in 
the performance of his office. He owns valuable mills 
and farms in and about the city, maintains eight families, 
and gradually increases in his basket and store, as well 
as in his already numerous progeny ; and all this is done 
in the name of religion ; and the deluded followers of 
Brigham Young and his apostles sweat and toil from 
day to day and year to year, and live often in poverty, to 
enable them to deliver their tenth dozen of eggs, quart of 
strawberries, ton of hay, bushel of grain, and every tenth 
of the increase of their herds, to maintain the leaders of the 

18* 



202 THE STERILE WASTE ACROSS IDAHO. 

Church in their licentious debauchery. They seem to like 
it, however, and if they don't complain, I presume that I 
should not ; but I can't help thinking that most of the 
humble members of the Saints, who are but hewers of 
wood and drawers of water for the dignitaries, come under 
Brigham Young's class of " poor devils." In his sermon 
that I heard, he divided the world into three classes, viz.: 
God's poor, the devil's poor, and poor devils ; and in the 
last class I would place two-thirds of his infatuated serfs, 
who toil and sow and reap while he and his favorites 
enjoy the fruits. 

But enough of the Mormons for this journey. I must 
leave them and their fairest valley of the West, to trace a 
journey over the Rocky range again. The Rocky Mount- 
ains form nearly a semicircle from the western part of 
Montana to the heart of Colorado, and in an overland 
journey to this place the main range has to be crossed 
twice — once into Salt Lake, and again northward into Mon- 
tana. After leaving the Mormons near Bear River there are 
no signs of agriculture until the valleys in this Territory 
are reached. All is a dreary, cold, sterile waste, with broken 
and generally abrupt mountain-bluffs, deep canons still 
visited by snow-storms, or open plains which seem as if 
shrouded in perpetual winter. The snow passes off the 
plains ; but no flowers or fruits can withstand the fearful 
blasts which sweep over them, and nothing but a sickly, 
frost-stricken coat of grass keeps up the semblance of vege- 
tation. Strange as it may seem, this region is the re- 
nowned home of the mosquitoes ; and they descend upon the 
luckless traveler in myriads, with a pluck that is truly ap- 
palling. They seem to an Eastern tourist more like some- 
fiends of the feathered tribe than like insects. It would 
require half a dozen of our Eastern mosquitoes to make an 
average one in the Bear River region, and their songs are 



THE STATION-MEN AND THEIR PETS. 203 

more like the music of a brass band, bass drum included, than 
the modest strains of the insect tribe. We all wore veils, as 
travelers must in that region ; but some of them seemed to 
have bills equal to pipe-stems, and could penetrate anything 
but a regular iron-clad. Even when we were almost frozen 
in the coach, the winged devils were active as ever; and 
only when we attained high ground and a friendly breeze 
came to our aid, did we escape these merciless tormentors. 
The country from Bear River to the summit presents 
nothing novel. All is a perpetual waste, without anything 
to vary the monotony of a tedious journey but the new faces 
to be greeted at the stations, and their inevitable pets. Un- 
til within fifty miles of Virginia City, I did not find a sta- 
tion where puss did not answer to a call for her and come 
out in the most friendly manner to receive the caresses of 
the strangers. One huge cat welcomed me at one of the 
stable-doors, cheerfully accepted my introduction, and es- 
corted me to the coach again, purring gayly and rubbing 
her head against my leg, until I got into the stage, when 
she mewed me a kind farewell and walked oif majestically 
to her stall. At some of the stations I found a variety of 
pets. Dogs are common, and always welcome the passen- 
gers with every manifestation of delight. Occasionally 
chickens and pigeons are added to the family of pets, and 
at one stable I met with a brace of solemn owls, who ven- 
tured upon a friendly wink when I patted them, but main- 
tained their proverbial stoicism in all other respects. They, 
with a dog, a cat, and a half-score of pigeons, make up the 
happy family of the stable-man, and they share his room, 
divide his frugal meals, and most of them claim a portion 
of his bed. At one station I missed the cat, and inquired 
of the stable-man why he was so singular as to be without 
his feline companion. "I've more and jollier pets than 
she be," was the reply; and he took me into his little cor- 



204 BREAKFAST AT PLEASANT VALLEY. 

ner partitioned off from the horses for a kitchen and cham- 
ber, and pointed me to a score of mice, rollicking in his 
dishes, over his bed, playing hide-and-seek in his clothes, 
and industriously trying to force a passage into his sugar- 
can. At the sound of his voice they gathered around him, 
scampered up the legs of his pants, prospected his ears, 
hair, and pockets, and turned upon me their sauciest 
glances. " That's not half of 'em," he said, as he turned 
to the first stall, where his bacon and other stores were 
deposited. And, true enough, there were scores of them, 
enjoying his provisions and ready to welcome him as their 
benefactor and friend. It was not hard to understand why 
that stable-man has no cat or dog. 

We took our last square breakfast at Pleasant Yalley 
station, for which we each paid two dollars, and threw the 
victuals in. It was the only meal I attempted on the en- 
tire route that was utterly unmanageable. Some were 
evidently filthy, but they were made to look passable on 
the table, and, with a little forgetfulness, enough could be 
worried down to satisfy the demands of hunger. But the 
Pleasant Valley breakfast was a ''dead beat" on all of us. 
The coffee was nothing but water made bitter by some 
nauseous ingredient, the fat bacon was stale, the eggs 
rather worse than stale, the butter worse than the eggs, the 
bread worse than the butter, and the potatoes were fried 
in the fat of the bacon. It would have required a first- 
class quartz-mill to masticate the bread ; and nothing more 
dainty than a buzzard could have eaten the other articles. 
The cook was an Irishman, who was filthy enough himself 
to sell as real estate. We all politely paid our money, and 
hastened away to escape the fragrance of our meal. Our 
last meal on the stage-route was at Black Tail Deer station ; 
and it presented a most delightful contrast with Pleasant 
Yalley. We were then within fifty miles of the end of our 



THE LAST FIFTY MILES. 205 

long journey; and, as we found a clean, bountiful, and well- 
prepared meal, and a pleasant landlady, the driver acceded 
to my request and gave us two hours to rest. The people 
of the East, who think a day's travel on a railroad-car a 
great task, have no appreciation of a few hours' rest at a 
clean station in the Rocky Mountains, after three days and 
nights of continuous staging. The softest and most grate- 
ful bed I have ever tried was the bunk of a stage-driver 
in a tidy adobe cabin after having been cramped up in a 
coach for several days. It was the greatest luxury to find 
a place to stretch my limbs and steal a few minutes of 
quiet sleep. It seemed to me that I had scarcely got my 
head on the blanket pillow until the driver shook me and 
informed me that the time I had asked for was up, and the 
coach at the door. 

We were soon aboard again, and started on our last 
drive — to me the longest fifty miles of the Avhole trip. 
I could not at any time sleep in the coach. Occasionally, 
the second or third night, weary nature would give way, 
and I would fall into fitful dozes, but soon to be startled 
out of them by an imaginary upset, an Indian attack, or 
some other horrible spectre of troubled sleep. As we 
started, the clear starlight was dimmed in the east, and 
rays of the mellowest tints threw their soft lustre above 
the mountain-tops. The moon was struggling to brighten 
our dreary path, and gradually she climbed the Rocky 
range, five miles above the Eastern Sea, on which her 
meridian brilliancy was then lavished, and reflected her 
welcome crown, in matchless splendor, from the peaks of 
eternal snows which stood in her course. In my far-oflf 
home she had greeted old friends three hours before ; had 
heard love's tender story from smitten swains ; had wit- 
nessed reluctant partings as midnight stole unconsciously 
upon them ; and across the deep-blue ocean she was gild- 



206 ARRIVAL AT VIRGINIA CITY. 

ing the starry vaulted dome above as she fled from ap- 
proaching day to bless the night of the Western World. 
Faster and faster her lines of light and beauty spread, the 
shadows receded from the mountain-sides, and soon her 
full effulgence flung its grandeur over the dreamy stillness 
of the towering cliffs or sullen plains. She brought mute 
but swift messages from home, — from distant but unforgot- 
ten, and I trust unforgetful, friends ; had just brightened 
their evening strolls, inspired their social minglings, and 
then hurried off to proclaim from sea to sea, to Christian 
and heathen, the omnipotent power of Him who fixes the 
stars in their spheres and notes the falling of the sparrow. 
In a few hours the east was again lit up, as the god of 
Day was coming to obey the immutable laws of Heaven. 
Gently he lifted up the silvered shadows of night and 
rolled them back to the far, far west ; and, as he wove his 
golden lining about the frosted rocky domes, one of the 
loveliest of mornings witnessed the end of my long and 
eventful journey, at Virginia City 



LETTER XXII. 

Union City. — Its Architecture and Population. — Its Sobriety. — 
The Single Monument of its Mortality.— The Bluebird and 
Robin.— The Natal Day of the Republic. — How it was not cel- 
ebrated.— The Western People.— Their Cordial Hospitality and 
Kindness. — How People are "corraled." — "Western Terms and 
their Significance. — How they live. — The Bountiful Boards of 
the Miners. — How Sunday is observed. — Sunday Auctions. — 
Gambling-Hells licensed by Law. — The Charms of Western 
Life. 

Union City, Montana Terr., July 4, 1867. 
Union City, the place where I am celebrating the natal 
day of the Republic, although bearing the dignified title of 
city, has not, as yet, found a place on the map of the coun- 
try, and it is quite probable that the urchins of future gene- 
rations will be flogged through schools in blissful ignorance 
of its existence. It consists of five gigantic mountain-spurs, 
or bluffs, forming a complete circle, with the exception of 
the narrow passage of Spring Gulch, and in the bottom of 
the hopper, but a few hundred feet in width, nestle a quartz- 
mill and a dozen of the rudest pole cabins. Winding 
ravines are plowed down through the steep cliifs which 
almost hang over the city, and the clearest, purest, sweet- 
est of- mountain-springs come dashing and splashing down 
to find the walled and sinuous outlet of the gulch below. 
The snow still whitens the tops and depressions of the 
mountains all around us, and, while the people of the East 
are panting and sweltering under scorching suns, we wear 
our woolens with comfort, and demand double blankets for 

(207) 



208 THE BLUEBIRD AND ROBIN. 

pleasant sleep. Green pines adorn the slopes of the almost 
perpendicular hills ; wild flowers crop out in magnificent 
profusion, and even decorate the very edges of the stubborn 
snow-banks. The little daisy presents its modest tribute to 
the beautiful of earth on every hand, and the cactus flings 
out its variegated hues, in happy contrast with the repulsive 
sage-brush that claims the mastery in our vegetation. We 
have no bristling guns, to make the mountains around us 
re-echo our rejoicing that the Republic still lives, redeemed 
to unstained Freedom and omnipotent in the majesty of 
justice ; nor can we have the measured tread of proces- 
sions, marching to hear sophomoric eloquence and inspire 
their patriotism with dubious beer. Our little mountain- 
city has no hotel, no restaurant, no sideboards, no flasks, to 
tempt the patriotic from the path of sobriety. Beyond the 
innocent game of quoits, it has no amusements to break in 
upon the industry of the staid inhabitants. Forty men, 
four ladies, three children, five cats, three dogs, four 
pigeons, three horses, six oxen, and densely crowded 
suburbs of gophers (a species of the ground-squirrel) 
make up the living population of this modest city of the 
mountains ; and one green grave, on the hill-side, of a loved 
and lamented wife, tells the story of its mortality. Visitors 
now and then add to our various circles. Spring has just 
spread her lovely verdure on the mountains, and the blue- 
bird comes with plaintive song, and the robin with merry 
chirp, to make the air sweet with their melody. They 
come, with their morning warbles, after they have blessed 
the bright sundown in the valleys hours before, and leave 
us, as the early shadows of evening gather, to enjoy the 
lingering day of the cliffs and plains. Two donkeys thrust 
their solemn but friendly faces into our doors thrice a week, 
and beg a dainty morsel of old cloth or paper by the most 
awkward manifestations of affection, while their burdens 



THE NATAL DAY OF THE REPUBLIC. 209 

of meat, butter, eggs, and vegetables are emptied to supply 
our wants. Not even the anniversary of a nation's birth 
can turn this people from their steady, tread-mill course of 
life. The dull click of the miner's pick may be heard far 
down in the bowels of the earth, as if freedom had never 
been born in the Western World ; the ladies sew and 
sweep and gossip and spread their tables with accus- 
tomed regularity ; the babies crow and scream and tum- 
ble as if they repelled all patriotic teachings ; the pa- 
tient ox-teams wind up and down the almost perpendicular 
steeps as usual ; the shrill but home-like sound of the 
engine -whistle calls the sons of toil to their daily rou- 
tine of duty ; the busy hum of machinery goes on in 
ceaseless murmuring ; puss claims her passing caress, and 
purrs her everyday song ; the mother pigeon struts upon 
-my table as I write, bristles her feathers, and cooes her 
demand for recognition ; the horses browse on the tender 
grasses of the bluffs; the dogs bask lazily in the welcome 
sun, and the squirrels chatter their morning and evening 
chorus all around us, and purloin from our frugal larders, 
as if stealing had no holidays with them. Thus in peace- 
ful, sober industry has our Fourth been honored, and its 
flight will mark no unusual record for the steady, plodding 
inhabitants of Union City. Nearly ever}^ leading nation 
of the world is here represented. The sturdy Cornish- 
man, the imperturbable Welshman, the impetuous son of 
France, the quiet Swede, the wandering Swiss, and the 
brawny Russian, all mingle their broken accents in their 
evening gatherings, as they smoke their pipes in the wealth 
of contentment. 

Not only the renowned mountains of the Far West, but 
also the peculiar people who inhabit them, present endless 
novelties to the tourist. Of the bewildering beauty of 
these ranges — whose cliffs and caiions and plains have 

19 



210 ffOW PEOPLE ARE '' CORRALEB.'' 

been ever present through a journey of over a thousand 
miles, and still seem to be endless — I have written before ; 
but of the people with whom I have mingled so pleasantly 
I have not had time to speak until now. The whole civil- 
ized world does not furnish a more cordial, frank, and hos- 
pitable class of citizens. Mutually dependent upon each 
other, they cultivate the highest measure of true neigh- 
borly kindness ; their humble homes and frugal boards 
ever offer shelter and bread to the stranger, and the chil- 
dren of want are not turned away in sorrow from their 
doors. With them came crime, armed with power and 
wealth and defiant of order and authority; but there are 
many nameless graves to attest the stern retribution of the 
honest settler, as he cleared the path of the bullet and dag- 
ger and made his treasure safe from the incursions of the 
robber. They are eminently social; and their" peculiar ex- 
pressions have a significance of which the more cultivated 
East have no knowledge. In all classes, from the most 
learned to the least favored in letters, the same expressive 
Westernisms are in common use. If a man is embarrassed 
in any way, he is "corraled." The Indians "corral" men 
on the plains ; the storms " corral" tourists in the mount- 
ains ; the criminal is " corraled" in prison ; the tender 
swain is '' corraled" by crinoline ; the business-man is 
" corraled" by debt or more enterprising and successful 
competitors; the unfortunate politician is ''corraled" by 
the mountaineers, the gulchmen, or the settlers ; the min- 
ister is " corraled" when he is called to become the pastor 
of a congregation ; and the gambler '' corrals" the dust of 
the miner. Indeed, the application of the term is almost 
as indefinite as it is universal. " Git" is another of the 
favorite and most expressive of Western terms. It is the 
invariable word hy which the hero of the whip and lines 
starts his teams ; and they understand it well. '' You git," 



WESTERN TERMS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE. 211 

is the most emphatic notice that can be given to any luck- 
less chap to leave the room or ranch, or to escape a re- 
volver ; and " You bet" is the most positive manner of 
affirmation. Everything is an "outfit," from a train on 
the plains to a pocket-knife. It is applied almost indis- 
criminately, — to a wife, a horse, a dog, a cat, or a row of 
pins. A " lay-out" is any proposed enterprise, from organ- 
izing a State to digging out a prairie-dog. Anything that 
has been tried, from running for Congress to bumming a 
drink, has been " prospected" or " panned out ;" and *' he 
didn't get a color," expresses the saddest of failures. When 
a Western man declines any proposition, he "ain't on it," 
he " don't go a cent on that," or "none of that in mine," is 
his answer. When he wants to deal or fight with a man, 
he proceeds to " go for him ;" and " I'll bet my bottom 
dollar" is his strongest backing to his expressed opinion. 
" The man in the wagon" is the author of all sayings and 
doings which can find no visible or responsible source. 
When the miner goes for the savages, he " cleans 'em out 
to the bed-rock;" and when a braggart is to be silenced, 
he is informed that "nobody's holding you," or "there's 
no weights on your coat-tails." When one gets the de- 
cided advantage of another, whether in deadly conflict or 
in business, he " has the drop on him." The universal 
term for eatables is " grub ;" and the most degrading epi- 
thet that one can apply to another is to pronounce him " a 
bilk." No Western man of pluck will fail to resent such 
concentrated vituperation. The term was entirely novel 
to me-, and I first asked its meaning of a landlord, who ex- 
plained by saying that " a 'bilk' is a man who never misses 
a meal and never pays a cent." There are many others, 
equally original and expressive, which I have heard often, 
but cannot now recall. Used as they are by all classes, in 
business and social circles, and by both sexes, they have 



212 J^OW THE MINERS LIVE. 

become part of the language of the country ; and a stranger's 
fitness for Western life is judged by his readiness in acquir- 
ing the use of them. 

The first settlers of the mining regions are proverbially 
improvident. As a rule, they earn to-day and spend to- 
morrow, and often discount their earnings to gratify their 
appetites or have a frolic. They live well — better, as a 
class, than do the laboring people of the East, where all 
articles of food are attainable. They never plant or beautifj^. 
Their home, as a rule, remains the same rude pole cabin, 
without regard to the smiles of fortune; but their plain 
tables will be loaded with the delicacies of the market. 
Oyster-soup or -pie, sardines, fresh tomatoes, corn, peas, 
beans, pineapples, whortleberries, blackberries, raspberries, 
strawberries, plums, cherries, pears, peaches, etc., are no 
luxuries in these mountains, thousands of miles distant 
from where most of them can be produced. They may be 
seen in the miner's camp every day, and the most juicy 
beef and the sweetest butter grace his bountiful board. 
They labor hard in their gulches or mines, but are ever 
ready for a change, whether it be to hunt down some thief 
or murderer for hundreds of miles, or attend a ball or a 
"hurdy-gurdy." They love the semi-civilized condition of 
society, and rarely ever can content themselves in the East 
after having spent a year or two in the mines. The con- 
ventionalities and the restraints of established communi- 
ties are painful to them, and they long for the freedom of 
their huts and Western life. As a rule, they are good citi- 
zens, — honest, scrupulous in maintaining their plighted 
word, and just, even generous, between man and man ; 
but they don't cramp themselves with the religious ideas 
of the Puritans. Their Sundays are but holidays, if even 
that. Generally they refrain from their regular work on 
that day ; but they will do odd jobs, attend street-auctions, 



THE CHARMS OF WESTERN LIFE. 213 

ill places like Virginia City, and sell or buy, as their wants 
may dictate; while those who have a taste that way will 
take a small spree, or amuse themselves with a game 
of poker or monte, generally at the cost of all their ready 
cash. In Virginia City, gambling-hells are licensed by 
authority of law, and the games are carried on in the most 
public places. On Sunday, the streets are crowded with 
miners ; the loud yells of half a score of auctioneers drown 
your own voice in conversation ; and most of the stores 
and places of business are open, and drive their most 
profitable trade. Gradually this condition of things will 
wear away ; the missionaries will come and rear churches, 
to which the gamblers and miners will contribute liberally; 
a higher moral tone will steadily infuse itself into society 
as families become settled among them, and the better 
class of the early citizens will conform to the new order of 
things, while the lower strata will seek new homes, where 
the exactions of civilization will not confront them for a 
time. Such is Far-Western life in the mines. With all its 
privations, it has its charms, which, to most men here, are 
stronger than the love of home or family ; and they thus 
live through " life's fitful fever," wandering from one El 
Dorado to another, until fresh graves, marked by hard 
hands but tender hearts, tell the story that the rugged 
journey is ended. 



19* 



LETTER XXIII. 

Mining in Montana. — The Failures of Quartz-Mills in the Midst 
of Kich Mines. — Hundreds of Mills should be paying in the 
Territory. — The Cost of Mining and Working Ores. — Prices 
in Montana. — The Money paid for Freights. — Fluctuations in 
Business. — Why Mining Companies fail. — The Best Mines 
owned in Small Fractions. — Economical Development impos- 
sible. — The "Freeze-out" Game. — How Companies should test 
Mines before purchasing. — Mills not needed until Mines are 
fully developed. — Character of Ores to determine Character of 
Machinery. — Montana as a Field for Successful Investments. 

Union City, Montana Terr., July 6, 1867. 
I FIND in Montana the same ill-conceived, badly-man- 
aged, and, of course, unsuccessful mining enterprises that 
the gold-fields of Colorado present, only on a much smaller 
scale. The failures are not so nearly universal here as 
there, for the reason that the ores are richer, of easier 
access, and as yet they have not presented the combina- 
tion of refractory metals which have defied all ordinary 
processes in Colorado. Some companies have succeeded 
in Montana, and are now doing well, with flattering pros- 
pects ahead ; but in every instance, so far as I have been 
able to learn, they have been successful rather in spite of 
the management than because of economy and skill in their 
direction. There are from twenty-five to thirty quartz- 
mills in this Territory all completed and supposed to be in 
order for running. Some of them are total failures and 
hopelessl}^ bankrupt ; others are partially defective in their 
(214) 



FAILURES OF QUARTZ-MILLS. 215 

machinery, and must await modification or repairs ; still 
others have the machinery and the power, but have been 
defrauded or disappointed in their mines ; and a very few 
are more than paying expenses. All these failures are in 
the midst of the richest gold and silver mines on the con- 
tinent, or probably in the world, and where the gold is 
more easily obtained than in California — the Montana 
quartz, as a rule, paying from the surface down, while in 
California, and most other mines of the precious metals, 
shafts must be sunk hundreds of feet before " pay-rock" 
can be obtained. 

Unfortunate Eastern stockholders in gold companies, 
doubtless, are at a loss to understand why their enterprises, 
embarked in with such confident hopes, drag along in 
wasteful expenditure and finally end in serious or total 
loss ; but any one of them, possessing ordinary business 
sagacity, need but glance at the actual condition of things 
here to appreciate that their failures are the legitimate, 
inevitable results of their own follies, and not the fault of 
the mines, which teem with boundless and available wealth. 
There ought to be hundreds of quartz-mills in operation 
in Montana to-day, paying the stockholders their entire 
cash investment each year in the shape of dividends ; but 
there must be a radical change in the prevalent system of 
purchasing mines, selecting, freighting, and constructing 
mills, and in their general management, before success 
will crown the efforts to develop the wonderful wealth of 
these mountains. There are leads enough opened in this 
Territory proffering ore that will yield from thirty to one 
hundred and fifty dollars per ton, to employ five hundred 
or more stamp-mills indefinitely ; and by the exercise of a 
sound judgment in the purchase and opening of the mines 
the ore could be reduced at a total cost, including mining 
and delivery, of from ten to twenty dollars per ton. While 



216 PRICES IN MONTANA, 

ill California they work ore profitably that yields from 
fifteen to eighteen dollars per ton, here no ore can be re- 
duced to pay expenses on a yield of less than thirty dollars 
per ton, and in many instances it must yield fifty dollars 
to pay any profit. 

It is true that wages are much higher here than in Cali- 
fornia, and must remain so for years to come. The Ter- 
ritory produces nothing but gold, silver, grain, vegetables, 
and a little stock. It has no manufactures, and will have 
none to supply the present generation. Machinery, cloth- 
ing, groceries, prints, iron, coffee, lead, etc. must be pur- 
chased at fabulous prices. Old iron is worth fifty cents 
per pound; sheet iron is worth seventy cents; copper 
sheets command two dollars per pound; lead ranges from 
forty to seventy cents per pound ; and the necessaries of 
life are so costly that five dollars per day is not more than 
living wages for ordinary laborers, while experienced 
miners, engineers, and all classes of skilled labor command 
from twenty to fifty per cent. more. This cannot soon be 
remedied, even in a country where wheat is sometimes fed 
to stock, as it was last winter in some of the bountiful 
valleys, because there was no market for it. Two years 
before, flour was worth as high as one hundred and ten 
dollars per sack of one hundred pounds, in gold, and the 
large profits realized by those who exported it from Salt 
Lake stimulated them to repeat the operation last year, 
and they were met with an abundant supply— jindeed, a 
surplus — of home-grown flour, and had to sell out at less 
than freight. Beyond the agricultural portion of the 
citizens of Montana, none seek to produce anything but 
what they expect to yield a speedy fortune, and no sys- 
tematic efforts are made to lay the foundations of rich and 
prosperous communities. The settlers are mostly miners, 
who count on but a temporary residence here, and the 



FLUCTUATIONS IN BUSINESS. 217 

traders and speculators who ever follow in their track to 
gather the lion's share of the precious metals after they 
have been produced. Just now the Territory is drained 
of one million of greenbacks to pay freights, and money 
commands from ten per cent, a month up to six per cent, a 
week. Business ebbs and flows to a degree unknown in 
old centres of trade, and sudden wealth and as sudden 
bankruptcy sweep close upon each other. Two years ago, 
when the gulches were producing many millions, in the 
leading settlements the scant supplies of goods sold 
readily at prices regulated merely by the usually 
elastic consciences of the merchants. Last year busi- 
ness was still brisk, and this j^ear an immense surplus 
of goods has been shipped, the market is perfectly 
glutted, and very many articles are sold at St. Louis 
prices. Some merchants have been compelled to borroAV 
money at from ten to twenty per cent, per month to pay 
freight at Fort Benton and then sell their goods at a loss 
of fifty to seventy-five per cent, to meet their obligations. 
One year presents no data for the business of the next, 
and everything goes by surges or waves to fortune or dis- 
aster. Even the mining has been done in the most reck- 
less, wasteful manner. The richest gold-beds are hastily 
and imperfectly hurried over, leaving more in them than 
is gathered from them, and new prospects or diggings call 
the heroes of the pick and spade from Alder to Helena, 
from thence to Deer Lodge, thence to Salmon River, and 
so on through the hundreds of placers where the incalcu- 
lable wealth of the mountains is developed. 

By-and-by, system, patience, and practical enterprise 
will come to this great work, and the wealth of Montana 
will startle the world. Just how soon the new order will 
arise, I cannot pretend to judge. If I had not gone 
through the desolation and wasted millions of the mining 



218 WHY 31 IN IN G COMPANIES FAIL. 

regions of Colorado, I would predict the speedy advent 
of most successful enterprise in Montana; but if good 
business-men in the East will persist in wasting fortunes 
in Colorado, I cannot assume that they will not continue 
to repeat the same insane profligacy in Montana, — soon 
encircle its hundreds of millions of accessible gold with 
bankrupt coporations, and paralyze this peerless fountain 
of riches. It is not too late to save Montana from this 
terrible curse, and save the many millions which I fear 
may be wasted, or worse than wasted, in the most inviting 
field for legitimate enterprise the whole world presents. 

The chief cause of the failure of most mining associa- 
tions organized in the East is the loose, hap-hazard, and 
careless manner in which they are started and prosecuted. 
Even the most judicious and careful men in their regular 
business at home seem to lose sight of all sound princi- 
cles in projecting and directing mining operations three 
thousand miles distant. In nine cases out of ten the buyers 
are imposed upon in the sale of mines, not that they are 
wanting in gold, perhaps, but because they are so scattered 
that they cannot work them to advantage. The best mines 
in Montana are still held in a manner that precludes suc- 
cessful development. One man will own the whole or a 
fraction of "discovery claim" (the one hundred feet on 
which the lead was discovered), and there will be different 
owners for Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on each way from dis- 
covery ; and most likely no one man will own more than 
a half or fourth of the one or two hundred feet of each 
claim. Take the '' Dakota," the " Ora Cache," the '' Golden 
Era," the '' Whitlach,"the "Boaz,"the "New York Belle," 
the "Pony," and the hundreds of other first-class leads 
already partially developed, and the claims, or fractions of 
claims, are generally owned on the same leads so promis- 
cuously and adversely that economical mining is impossi- 



THE '■'FREEZE-OUT' GAME. 219 

ble. Most of the owners, as a rule, are men who have no 
means to develop their claims, and, if they had the means, 
they could not afford to do so. Each would have to sink 
an expensive shaft in his claim or fraction to reach say 
from twenty-five to one hundred feet; and that is impossi- 
ble. All believe that the lead is valuable ; but each waits 
for the others to prove the richness of their whole property ; 
and when some one does venture to make the costly and 
hazardous experiment, and this establishes the value 
of the lead, he must then pay the others fabulous prices 
for having developed their wealth. Development is not 
the rule among- the miners who own most of the valuable 
mines, or at least fractions of them. The "freeze-out" 
game is much more common. One cannot succeed with- 
out securing additional claims, so as to justify shafts or 
tunnels, and his necessities are fully appreciated by the 
other owners, and they get up a most expensive "lay-out" 
for him. I have seen several parties sinking separate 
shafts in the same lead, producing ore at from fifteen to 
twenty-five dollars per ton, because of the small space 
worked by each shaft, where a tunnel would deliver all 
the ore of the lead at a cost not exceeding five dollars per 
ton. In this way companies are often involved in disas- 
trous expenditure to procure their ore from first-class 
mines. They believe certain leads to be good ; they buy 
two, five, or ten hundred feet on them, without knowing 
how their claims are located or how the lead can best be 
worked; they invest thousands of dollars to purchase, 
ship, and erect machinery, and when they want their ores 
they discover that, while they have plenty of good ores 
under ground, several others own intervening claims, and 
compel them to buy them out at ruinous prices or work 
their claims of good leads at a positive loss. No company 
should ever purchase a lead for the purpose of working it, 



220 THE ERROR IN STARTING MILLS. 

without an accurate map showing the location of every 
claim on the lead, the streams of water accessible to mills, 
the formation of the ground traversed by the mine, its alti- 
tude and grade, its timber, and satisfactory points for shafts 
or tunnels which will command the ore at the least cost. 
When companies announce in their prospectuses that they 
own claims on a dozen different leads whose names are in 
good repute as valuable mines, unless they own connected 
claims on some one or more well-tested leads which can 
be worked by one shaft or tunnel, rest assured that the 
projectors of the companies either have been fearfully 
cheated, or they are seeking to defraud the public by the 
sale of stock that can never be valuable unless by accident. 
I have explained in detail this feature of mining claims, 
because it is the rock on which very many have wrecked 
the most sanguine hopes, and it is alike the interest of the 
country at large and of stockholders that they look well 
in the start to this peril. A mill once erected, whose suc- 
cess depends upon the control of adjoining claims, is cer- 
tain to suffer extortion to a degree often fatal, or make its 
bed in bankruptcy beside untold wealth. 

Another fundamental error committed by nearly all 
companies is the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to start mills before their leads are developed. This 
is the common disease that has spread hopeless failure 
throughout the mountains; and, strange to say, the most 
stupendous failures have been made by the most trusted 
scientific men. It will doubtless startle thousands of your 
readers, but it is nevertheless true, that there is not a single 
gold-mine in Montana that is developed, and few, if any, 
in Colorado. Good ''pay-rock" has been found here in 
the surface ores, and they have been worked with tolerable 
success ; but the character and value of the leads, down 
where they are clearly defined, no one has as yet ascer- 



HOW COMPANIES SHOULD TEST MINES. 221 

tained. Experienced miners judge of them by the walls, 
clay, pockets, and streaks, and pronounce them the most 
valuable and trustworthy in the world ; but one claim of two 
hundred feet on a lead maybe of surpassing richness, while 
another may cap, or pinch, or narrow to almost nothing. 
One claim will present free gold, while the adjoining claim 
will be so strongly impregnated with iron as to defy re- 
duction by the ordinary stamp-mill. \ have seen free gold 
and heavy sulphurets at the same depth, on the same lead, 
and within one hundred feet of each other. When these 
facts are considered, sensible men will see the folly of rush- 
ing up mills on undeveloped leads, where they have to 
run the risk of striking barren mines or a character of ores 
that their mills will not reduce. No mining company in 
Colorado or Montana should entertain the idea of purchas- 
ing machinery for at least one year after they have secured 
their mines. When they have purchased their leads, — 
always being careful to have their claims in a body or 
bodies sufficiently large for the most economical mining, — 
they should employ a trustworthy, experienced, and prac- 
tical miner to develop their mines. Ten or twenty thou- 
sand dollars thus expended will prove beyond all doubt 
the character and value of the ore ; and until at least one 
thousand tons of ore are on the bank, its value proven, its 
cost calculated, and its peculiarities ascertained, nothing 
else should be considered. If the mines refuse to yield 
good ore at a reasonable cost, the loss is comparatively 
slight, and the project can be abandoned without involving 
the sacrifice of the whole capital of the compan}^ and the 
embarrassment of many of its founders. Companies thus 
foiled, with the expensive mills erected, are naturally 
tempted to borrow and assess additional sums, with the 
faint hope that they may succeed by mistaken persever- 

20 



222 CHARACTER OF MINING MACHINERY. 

ance, until finally hope and means fade out together, and 
the enterprise is abandoned in despair. 

If the mines pro\^e valuable, and an abundance of good 
ore can be produced at a reasonable cost, the character of 
the ore is next to be considered, and the selection of the 
proper machinery and power to reduce it and save the 
largest percentage of the gold or silver. For crushing 
all kinds of free-gold quartz, the ordinary stamp-mill is 
the best, while for slight mixtures of the pyrites of 
iron the Chilian mills and barrel amalgamators are pre- 
ferable. The stamp-mill is the simplest and most waste- 
ful machinery used in the reduction of ores. It requires 
less skill, and is less expensive. The Chilian mill does 
better work, and, with the barrels, will often take more 
gold out of the ore after it has been reduced by the 
stamps and ordinary amalgamation, than the stamp pro- 
cess yields. When the ore is largely mixed with the base 
metals, as in Colorado, there is no process yet perfected 
that will reduce it profitably. The best scientific talent of 
this country and of Europe is now directed to master 
these refractory ores, and is steadily attaining a higher 
measure of success; but, until entirely successful, ama- 
teurs have no business experimenting with any of the 
various patents which flood the markets. Companies 
which develop such ores will save money by waiting for 
science to overtake them; and they can do it with entire 
confidence that they will ultimately make their mines 
profitable. When companies have thus fairly developed 
their mines and ascertained the character of their ores, 
they can readily determine what kind of machinery is 
best adapted to their wants, and they can then wisely pro- 
ceed to ship it. First, however, they cannot be too careful 
in looking to the quality and completeness of their mills. 
There are mills now erected in this Territorv which were 



SELECTION OF A SUPERINTENDENT. 223 

worn out in a month. This is no country for defective 
machinery. It cannot be repaired, and missing pieces 
cannot be supplied. Ev^ery part of a mill likely to break 
should be duplicated, and a forge outfit is essential to suc- 
cess. There is, as yet, no foundry in the Territory. I 
learn that one is about to be established in Helena ; but 
the stoppage of a profitable mill for days to get repairs 
done one hundred miles or more distant, is attended with 
fearful loss, not to count the exorbitant charges for work 
and transportation. If anything important is found want- 
ing in the machinery when it arrives, it requires another 
season to supply it, as no trains or boats leave the East 
for Montana, the same year, after a mill is delivered on the 
ground, and its defects discovered by its erection. One 
company here lost a year by the omission to send some 
,essential portion of the mill. If they are improving the 
lost time in developing their mines, it was a fortunate ac- 
cident ; but they can claim much above the average of good 
management, if they thus made their supposed mishaps a 
blessing. 

The mill selected and started by the river, a first-class, 
industrious business-man is wanted for superintendent. 
In most cases, some son or friend of one of the leading 
officers of the company, having no fitness for business, 
and entirely inexperienced, is sent out to enjoy fast horses, 
good liquors, and cigars, and speedily mismanage the com- 
pany into debt and failure. Sound, practical, experienced, 
and frugal men only can conduct such operations prop- 
erly. ' With wages from five dollars to eight dollars per 
day, and everything else in proportion, mismanagement 
tells upon profits and capital here with a rapidity that 
Eastern men can scarcely appreciate. In no ordinary busi- 
ness in the East is judicious supervision so essential, and 
the dividino- line between success and failure so narrow. 



224 ALDER GULCH. 

I have, for obvious reasons consistent with truth and 
fairness, given the dark side of mining operations in Mon- 
tana. It is one vast field of bewildering wealth, and I 
most earnestly hope to see it speedily and most success- 
fully developed. Twenty millions of capital could be more 
profitably invested here than in any other locality ; and, 
by simply observing the same sound business principles 
which govern capitalists in other enterprises, not one dol- 
lar in twenty should be lost, while a very large majority of 
the investments would pay fabulous returns. In no other 
mining region are the leads so uniformly good and so easily 
tested ; and they can, as a rule, be developed by tunnels, 
and the ore delivered at a very low rate. Not only the 
mountains, but the gulches are of incomparable richness. 
Alder Gulch, that has already produced more gold than 
any other single gulch in the world (so I am informed), 
will soon be worked over again and repeat its previous 
yield. It was once worked for ten consecutive miles, in 
claims of one hundred feet, and each claim yielded from 
two hundred dollars to two thousand dollars every twenty- 
four hours. Clear-headed business-men are now gathering 
up the claims, and will, by one central flume traversing 
the rock-bottom, work over the whole gulch with vast 
profit, while others will wash down the rich hill-sides by 
the hydraulic process. In the mean time, the rich bluffs 
whence the gold of the gulch has been washed will be 
disemboweled, and their leads, studded with gold quartz, 
worth from thirty dollars to one thousand dollars per ton, 
will be worked, and boundless fortunes amassed. There is 
no part of this continent where Eastern capital is so much 
wanted, and where it will so well reward its judicious in- 
vestment, as in Montana; and I entreat men to discard 
"professors," jobbers in claims, inflated speculative con- 
cerns, and lend a helping hand in the legitimate develop- 



COLOSSAL FORTUNES TO BE MADE. 225 

ment of this slumbering wealth. Send practical men to 
secm-e leads properly located for development, and then, 
abov^e all things, "make haste slowl}^" Test all things, 
and faikire is hardly possible. Different degrees of success 
will be attained ; but, upon the whole, there must be incal- 
culable profits, and the colossal fortunes of the next decade 
will have their birth in this long-unknown but richest 
offering of our national creation. 



20* 



LETTER XXIY. 

The Montana Vigilanters. — The Keign of Crime in the Mining 
Regions. — Montana the Refuge of the Lawless, — The Concentra- 
tion of Desperadoes. — How Virginia City was named. — Organi- 
zation of Plummer's Band. — Plummer Sheriff of the Territory. 
— All the Channels of the Law controlled. — Completeness of the 
Organization. — Its Signs and OflScers. — Victims unconsciously 
notifying the Robbers of their Prey. — The Tide of Retribution. 
— Its Merciless Sweep. — Colonel John X. Beidler. — The Hero of 
Montana Justice. — His History and Exploits. — How the Judg- 
ment of the Vigilanters is executed. — The First Execution. — 
The Last of Plummer's Band. — The Great Revolution wrought 
by the Vigilanters. — One of their own Members executed. — The 
Justice of their Judgments. — The Restoration of Order and 
Safety. 

Virginia City, Montana Terr., July 9, 1867. 
The term " Vigilance Committee" is familiar to all 
Eastern readers; but there are few who have just concep- 
tions of crime as it compassed the isolated mountain min- 
ing regions, or of its merciless retribution. California 
tolerated the rule of murderers and desperadoes for years, 
but finally effected an organization founded on the maxim 
salus jjopuli suprema lex, and the leaders of disorder and 
lawlessness were executed or banished. But California 
then had large cities, vast commerce, easy access to the 
great business centres of trade, and a social bulwark to 
strengthen the harsh but imperative reformation. Not so 
with the Territories of the Rocky Mountains. Their wealth 
was discovered just when the golden slopes of the Pacific 
had become intolerable for those who preferred any crime 
( 220 ) 



THE REIGN OF CRIME. 22 1 

in the decalogue to honest industiy. Coloi'ado, Idaho, and 
Montana were isolated from the civilized world. Hun- 
dreds or thousands of miles had to be traveled over, mount- 
ain-passes and almost trackless plains, unpeopled save by 
the pitiless savage ; and the population was of necessity 
rude, without social restraints, and naturally tended to 
semi-barbarism. There was no government, no law, no 
access to the protecting power of the national authority for 
years, and here were most inviting fields for the banished 
desperadoes of other lands, and every incentive to lead the 
upright down through the tempting but ultimately fatal 
labyrinths of crime. Few families were among the early 
settlers, and the happy influences of faithful wives and vir- 
tuous daughters were unknown. The influence of woman, 
so far as felt, came from the hopelessly fallen, and, like 
all perverted angels of light, they but hastened the mas- 
tery of wrong and led the way. Gamblers plied their vo- 
cation, without blush or restraint, on the most public places. 
Murderers infested every locality where there was the 
least inducement to take life for gold ; and organized thieves 
ramified into every settlement. It is a tradition of Denver 
that Mr. Greeley was so highly respected when visiting that 
place in 1859, that, as he mounted a box to address the 
citizens near the "Elephant Corral," the dealer of three- 
card monte on the sidewalk close by suspended his game 
until the speech was concluded. This was considered a 
most marked deference to the public appreciation of the 
man, and a tribute that few bishops could have won. So 
common was this fearful vice there, and in all the other 
Territories as they were first settled, that every public 
place on the streets and sidewalks, but two, successfully 
invited the miner to be defrauded of his earnings. 

I have in a previous letter referred in general terms to 
the reign and decline of crime in Colorado, and the stern 



228 1^0 W VIRGINIA CITY WAS NAMED. 

retribution the Denver Yigilanters visited upon some of 
the most desperate leaders in lawlessness ; but it was re- 
served for Montana to organize and maintain the most 
efficient combination of order-loving men that this country 
has ever witnessed. Just as Colorado had become strong 
enough to enforce some measure of public order and safety, 
the richest gulches of the continent were discovered in 
Idaho and Montana, and there was a general exodus of 
thieves and murderers from all the other mining regions, 
and also from the haunts of evil in the Eastern cities, to 
inaugurate the supremacy of crime in this new El Dorado. 
Four years ago (in June, 1863) the surpassing richness 
of Alder Gulch was discovered. With the lucky adven- 
turers who opened its glittering wealth, came 

" The first low wash of waves, where soon 
Shall roll a human sea." 

Nevada was the first mining camp established. It is down 
near the extremity of the gulch ; but, as its wonderful de- 
posits of the precious metals were opened up the stream, 
Yirginia City was founded. It was called Yarina, in 
honor of the then rebel chieftain's wife, and two-thirds of 
its inhabitants were jubilant with the hope soon to be sub- 
jects of the notorious heroes of treason. Antietam, Gettys- 
burg, Yicksburg, Atlanta, Nashville, Five Forks, and Ap- 
pomattox were then unknown, and the fitting representa- 
tives of unholy rebellion in these mountain-fastnesses had 
forgotten that there is One high over all, whose justice 
sleeps not. Little did they dream that, like the name they 
so fondly cherished as to rear thereto a city, they must 
soon live only in the history of the overthrow of wrong in 
Montana. Judge Bissel indignantly and arbitrarily ex- 
punged the name, and substituted Yirginia, in his first 
legal record, informing the bewildered audience, in Ian- 



ORGANIZATION OF PLUMMER'S BAND. 229 

giiage more emphatic than polite, that no such blot should 
mar the records of justice in his court. 

A year before the settlement of Yirginia, the rich placers 
of Beaver Head and Deer Lodge had been discovered, and 
it was in these localities that the most perfectly organized 
and best appointed band of desperadoes ever known on the 
continent had its origin. Its system was perfect, its plans 
devised and executed with consummate skill, and it reached 
into every camp close upon the footsteps of the miners. 
While Bannock City was its original centre, as Yirginia 
grew in importance and surpassed all other camps in wealth 
and population, it promptly extended its operations until its 
chief field was here. It was no loose aggregation of in- 
dependent thieves and cut-throats. It had a commander, 
subordinate executive officers, secretaries, agents, stool- 
,pigeons, signs, and by hieroglyphics could so mark a man, 
a coach, or a train as to make them innocently invite their 
own destruction on the way. Certain of the leaders even 
wore their neck-ties in a peculiar knot, and by day or night, 
whether visible or shrouded in darkness, they could com- 
municate with and aid each other. They were not, as in 
California and Colorado, the shunned and abandoned men 
of the communities in which they lived ; they were the 
most wealthy, influential, and by many at first believed to 
be useful citizens. The leader of the band, Henry Plum- 
mer, was one of the most accomplished of villains, and a 
master-mind in the application and government of men. 
So shrewdly did he direct his operations that he was 
chosen sheriff of both Madison and Beaver Head counties, 
and his deputies were selected from the most trusted and 
expert of his band. The counties had no legal organiza- 
tion ; no authority was known other than the regulations 
adopted by the settlers, and might made right. With the 
power of the people in the two richest and most populous 



230 ^^ROAD-AGENTS." 

counties in his keeping, it is not wonderful that for nearly 
two years the band prospered and defied detection. So 
completely did the organization compass everything re- 
lating to their interests that every placer was watched, 
its yield traced to the time of shipment, and it was rarely 
indeed that any man could get safely to the States with 
treasure. They were, as a rule, lucky if they lost only 
their gold and saved their lives. If they started in a 
coach or with a train, unerring signs were marked upon 
them, or upon something about them, to notify the pre- 
datory bands to strike and secure the plunder ; or if 
vengeance was to be glutted, as was often the case, the 
traveler would unconsciously notify the skulking foe that 
his life-blood was to be theirs. Hundreds of thousands 
of dollars were thus plundered from miners and business- 
men, and, if arrests were made, the prisoners were 
delivered to Sheriff Plummer, the chief of the robbers. 
They thus escaped punishment, and were soon off again 
to operate for the band in some new field, where recogni- 
tion was improbable. This organization became known as 
"Road-Agents," from the fact that they committed most 
of their depredations on the routes of travel ; and to this 
day no other term is applied to highway-robbery in the Far 
West. They numbered over fifty desperate men, all well 
armed and most skilled in the use of weapons, and had, 
besides, probably a hundred or more outside allies and 
dependents. They would scatter in every direction, and 
simultaneously rob coaches, trains, or travelers hundreds of 
miles apart. They had stations all through the country, 
where they could stop in safety, as the keepers were pimps 
of the band and received small shares of the common 
booty. Thus these thousand sinews of crime extended 
throughout all the settlements and highways of Montana, 
held the law paralyzed in their clutches, and were supreme 



ORIGIN OF THE VIGILANTERS. 231 

everywhere in the Territory. Even when the civil law 
pretended to assume its prerogatives, this band either fur- 
nished or corrupted its officers, and no jury could be sworn 
that did not contain enough of their own members to con- 
trol the verdict. Not only did they murder when neces- 
sary to rob, but they gradually became so bold that, upon 
the slightest provocation, they would deliberately shoot 
down men on the streets of Virginia, Nevada, or Bannock, 
and none dared to call them to account. Encouraged by 
habitual success, and confident that there was no power 
equal to the task of bringing them to punishment, they 
finally flung over Montana a reign of the most appalling 
terror, and men w^ere compelled to defer to Plummer, obey 
his authority as an officer, and submit in silence to his 
atrocities to save their own lives. 

But, though "the mills of the gods grind slowly, they 
grind exceeding small." Man}^ prominent citizens had 
been murdered or robbed, and the depredations of the band 
on the routes to the States were so frequent that no one 
ventured to return with treasure. Every good citizen felt 
that there must soon be a terrible remedy applied, or all 
legitimate pursuits abandoned. Strange to say, the mur- 
der of one of the humblest residents of Montana — a simple, 
friendless German — was the feather that broke down pub- 
lic forbearance and called into existence a power that has 
executed nearly one hundred men, banished hundreds of 
others, and restored order, safety, and peace in Montana 
without a single stain of injustice upon its fame. The 
German was murdered to obtain some mules he had sold, 
and was on his way to deliver to the purchaser, who had 
already paid him for them. He had been in the employ 
of Mr. Clark, an old resident of California and a member 
of the Yigilanters. The lifeless body had been secreted in 
a thicket of sage-brush, and the story circulated that the 



232 COLONEL JOHN X. BEIDLER. 

German had left for unknown parts with the mules and 
money. For some time there were no data to controvert 
the explanation made by the murderers; but finally a 
hunter brought down a grouse, which fell in the very 
thicket in which the body of the German was concealed, 
and told the story of another murder by the " Road- 
Agents." The body was taken to the city, and Mr. Clark 
was the first man, I believe, to give form to the ripened 
resolution against the desperadoes. The effort was gener- 
ally and promptly seconded, and, once started, its sweep was 
boundless and merciless. It was a perilous undertaking. 
A single failure would have been fatal to all concerned in it ; 
and it was not doubted that the lawless were in a decided 
majority. Had any ten or even fifty men been suspected 
of such a purpose before the organization was effected, not 
one could have lived to see their plans succeed; but they 
were discreet as resolute ; their vengeance was unseen and 
unfeared until it took the murderer from his bed and the 
light of morning dawned upon his lifeless body suspended 
from a tree. There was no muttering thunder before the 
bolt fell with pitiless destruction upon the wrong-doers. 

Of the many brave men who inaugurated and openly 
sustained this movement, no one can justly be awarded 
exclusive praise ; but there is one who figures as conspicu- 
ously in the history of the Yigilanters as did Plummer in 
the reign of terror. Some twelve j^ears ago I was accus- 
tomed to meeting, on the streets of Chambersburg, Pa., a 
young man named John X. Beidler. His frugal wants 
were supplied by the manufacture of brooms, and finally 
he mixed the best of cock-tails and juleps at a neighboring 
summer resort. He was as amiable and unoffending a lad 
as the community could furnish, and his jolly, genial hu- 
mor made him a favorite with all who knew him. Although 
he had attained his majority, he was scarcely five feet six 



BEIDLER'S HISTORY AND EXPLOITS. 233 

inches in height, and was far below the average of men 
in physical power. He finally wandered West in search 
of fortune, and soon after the advent of Plummer came 
"X," the name by which he is universally known in Mon- 
tana. Thus the bane and the antidote were close upon 
each other. Strong in his inherent love of honesty, a 
stranger to fear, not powerful, but quick as thought in his 
actions, and firm in his purpose as the eternal mountains 
around him, he naturally entered promptly and earnestly 
into the effort to restore order and safety to society. That 
little was expected of him when he first cast in his lot with 
the stern reformers is not surprising; but his tireless per- 
severance, unfaltering courage, and singular skill in thwart- 
ing the plans of the common enemy soon made him the 
chief pillar of the organization, and the unspeakable terror 
of every desperado. This diminutive man, without family 
or property to defend, has himself arrested scores of the 
most powerful villains, and has executed, in open day, 
an equal number under the direction of that wonderful, 
dreaded, unseen power that surrounded the hasty scaf- 
fold. So expert is he with his faithful pistol that the 
most scientific of rogues have repeatedly attempted in vain 
to get ''the drop" on him. Quick as a flash his pistol 
is drawn, cocked in the drawing, and presented at the 
doomed man, with the stern demand, ''Hands up, sir," 
and the work is done. At one time, without aid, he ar- 
rested six of the most desperate thieves in a body, all 
well armed, and marched them before him to prison. 
" Hands up, gents !" was the first intimation they had from 
him that he had business with them, and submission was 
the only course of safety. Had any one of them attempted 
to reach toward his belt, he would have fallen that moment. 
There were citizens close by; and how many of them, if 
any, were sworn to protect and ready to aid Beidler, he 

21 



234 HIS REMARKABLE CAREER. 

knew, while the prisoners did not. This indefinite, un- 
seen, immeasurable power seems to have ever stricken the 
most courageous thieves and murderers nerveless when its 
sudden and fatal grasp was thrown around them. They 
would fight scores of men for their lives in any ordinary 
attempt to arrest them, but they seemed weakened when 
the citizen confronted them in the name of public safety. 
No formalities were known. No process was read bearing 
the high seal of the courts. When or where the dread sum- 
mons of the great unseen tribunal would come, none could 
conjecture. The sleeping companion of the desperado in 
some distant ranch would probably drink and breakfast 
with him, and then paralyze him by the notice, '' You're 
wanted — ^business at Virginia !" In no instance did any 
of the many lawless characters arrested by the Yigilants 
ever fire a pistol in their own defense, even when they knew 
that death was inevitable. In most cases the opportunity 
to do so was but slight ; but, under ordinary circumstances, 
the closest chances would be taken to effect escape. From 
*'X" no criminal ever got away. To have attempted it 
would have been to hasten death. So much did the des- 
peradoes respect as well as fear him, that most of them, 
when condemned to die by his hand, committed their last 
requests to him, and with him they have been sacred. 
Order and public safety have been restored, but he still has 
employment in his favorite line. He comes and goes, and 
none but himself know his errand. "What's up, X?" is 
a query that is generally answered, ''After tracks;" and 
'' Don't know" is his usual reply to all questions as to his 
route or time of departure. He has traversed alone every 
highway and settlement of Montana, prospected many of 
the unexplored regions, and is always ready, without escort 
or aid, to pursue a criminal wherever he may seek refuge. 
His career has, indeed, been most remarkable, and his es- 



THE FIRST EXECUTION. 235 

cape unharmed, through his mnumerable conflicts with the 
worst of men, seems ahuost wholly miraculous. He has re- 
cently been appointed Collector of Customs for the port of 
Helena ; but, while there is a thief, a defaulter, a murderer, 
or a savage to disturb the peace of Montana, he will re- 
main the most efficient messenger of justice known in the 
mountain gold-regions. He has lost none of his genial, 
kindly nature by his long service as the minister of venge- 
ance upon the lawless, and wherever he goes he is wel- 
comed by every lover of order and government. When 
he is upon the war-path ''it's no for naething the gled 
whistles," and crime has no escape but in timely retreat. 
Fully three thousand perfectly organized men are at his 
back. They have their companies, officers, minute-men, 
and messengers in every settlement, and he can rally in an 
'instant scores or hundreds of true men to his side. 

The first execution was that of George Ives, and he was 
condemned by a court of the people. It was the turning- 
point of order or anarchy. The outlaws were numerically 
the strongest, and the rescue of the prisoner was among 
the probable results; but brave men were braver than be- 
fore, and the cloud of crime that encompassed the court 
to control the verdict or save the accused by fresh mur- 
der was dissipated by the stern integrity and unblenching 
courage of the lovers of order. Colonel Sanders, a young 
advocate, small in stature, but large in soul and manhood, 
conducted the prosecution, and for the first time the ad- 
vancing column of w^rong recoiled as the verdict was an- 
nounced, " That George Ives be forthwith hung by the 
neck until he is dead." Fifty-eight minutes thereafter, but 
ten yards distant from the place where he had been tried, 
the fatal drop fell, and justice had a foothold in Montana. 
This was on the 21st of December, 1863. Soon after. Sheriff 
Plummer and two of his band were executed together at 



236 THE TIDE OF RETRIBUTION. 

Bannock. He swung from a gallows he had erected for 
the execution of another, and he maintained his wonderful 
self-possession to the end. His last act was a deliberate 
examination of the rope and drop, to be sure that his neck 
should be broken by the fall, and he was launched into 
eternity without a prayer. Five of his followers sleep in 
unmarked graves on the hill close by this city: they died 
together, on one of the street-corners, and then the resist- 
less course of justice ran on, until, at last, near the head of 
the murmuring waters of the Gallatin, a lifeless body, sus- 
pended from a tree, bore this inscription : '' Bill Hunter, 
the last of Henry Plummer's band." Several of those 
first arrested and executed confessed upon the gallows, and 
revealed the names of the whole organization, and with this 
information the Vigilants rested not until there was not one 
of the original Plummer band among the living. Not one re- 
mains of that once omnipotent organization to tell its crim- 
soned and fatal history. After the leaders had been exe- 
cuted — three at Bannock and five at Virginia — one by one, 
the scattered fugitives were hunted doAvn and sent sud- 
denly to their long homes. All of them died without even 
the profession of penitence, and many of them blasphemed 
until utterance was choked by the death-noose. Two of 
them leaped high in the air from the gallows, to hasten 
their presence before an unreconciled and avenging God. 
For the crimes of these men self-banishment was considered 
no atonement. Thousands of dollars were expended in the 
pursuit of those who fled hundreds of miles to escape this 
merciless and inevitable retribution. When they felt safe 
in their isolated retreats, the hand of the Yigilants would 
fall upon them, and the)^ would find graves, unshrived 
and unmourned, wherever the ministers of justice crossed 
their path. Some had climbed the narrow passes to Idaho 
and Oregon, others had sought for refuge in California, 



NO ESCAPE FROM THE VIGILANTERS. 23 1 

and even South America was tried as a retreat from this 
resistless current of vengeance. All, all was fruitless. 
The solemn judgment of the unseen tribunal must be 
executed, though the ends of the earth had to be searched 
for the guilty victim. Not only justice inflexibly de- 
manded it, but common safety was equally imperative 
in exacting that none, once condemned, should escape. 
They could infest the thousand miles of unpeopled plains 
and mountain-caiions between here and the States, where 
the ministers of justice must sometimes travel ; but not 
one was left to renew the vengeance of crime. They 
made themselves and the public safe by ceaseless pur- 
suit, until the murderer lived only where all are judged 
in righteousness. Nor is their work wholly of the past 
Although unseen and unknown, their sleepless eyes guard 
the Far West with tireless vigilance. No desperado can 
ascend the Missouri without his name, description, and 
antecedents either preceding or coming with him, and 
every settlement will have its faithful sentinels to chal- 
lenge him on his arrival. There is no pomp or parade in 
their proceedings, and most who would fear them nat- 
urally suppose that they have disbanded as an organiza- 
tion ; but the hapless rogue who lands in Montana will 
have the ardor of his hopes speedily chilled by some un- 
known friend bidding him good-by and suggesting that 
he depart without delay. No explanation is given, none 
is needed, and Montana loses a citizen she can better 
spare than keep. Many miles from this place I saw a 
doomed man — doomed to death by this matchless human 
agency, and conscious of it. He was a prisoner in the 
hands of the law. He could have escaped, but dared not, 
for around him were the silent and unknown sentinels of a 
tribune that has no technicalities in its trials. He may 
escape the cobwebs of the civil law, but the world is too 

21* 



238 RESTORATION OF ORDER AND SAFETY. 

small to afford him an asylum, and he lives from day to 
day in hopeless despair. Ere long he will surely go un- 
wept to his final resting-place, and none will inquire why 
he has made an untimely exit. 

Such is a brief, and necessarily imperfect, history of the 
triumph of justice in Montana. The civil courts are now 
in operation, but, without the power of the Yigilanters, 
crime would soon regain the ascendency. Their organiza- 
tion is maintained as an auxiliary to the courts, and to 
reach out the arms of justice where the civil power is un- 
equal to the task. Should the law ever prove too feeble 
for the support of order, then will three thousand men 
guard the public safety. So inflexible have they been, 
that no means, no ties, no circumstances, could shield 
the guilty. One of their own number was found to have 
sought shelter from just punishment in their '' circle," 
and he was summarily executed. In another instance the 
friends of the condemned proposed to make restitution 
of stolen property, if the sentence could be changed from 
death to banishment ; but the criminal was one of the 
robbers' band, and the restitution was made by the Yigi- 
lanters, and the robber sent to his grave. In three years of 
operations, covering nearly one hundred executions, this 
organization is not to-day charged, by friend or foe, with 
partiality or prejudice, or with a single unjust punishment. 
Sternly, patiently, untiringly, it has prosecuted its unwel- 
come labor, and its history is but the history of the suprem- 
acy of virtue, order, and justice in Montana. 



LETTER XXY. 

A Political Mandamus. — Opening of a Mountain Political Cam- 
paign. — Western People. — Their Generosity and Prodigality. 
— Extravagance of Prosperous Times. — The Restless Prospecter. 
— Sunday in Virginia City. — Street-Auctions. — Cheap John 
on Eastern Notions. — Shepherds get astray. — Sunday in Union 
City.— The Children of the Village. — Departure of Little Eva. 
— Her Affecting Earewell. — Little Alice. — Her Theological 
Disputation. — Corraled in the Mountains by Indians and Low 
Water. 

Union City, Montana Terr., Aug. 12, 1867. 
As I have been absent from our little mountain-city of 
cabins but twice since I arrived here, and then less than a 
day each time, I cannot be expected to write about general 
affairs in the Territory. During the six weeks I have been 
in Montana I have not rotated outside of a circle of eight 
miles from this place; but the Union Territorial Committee 
have issued a peremptory mandamus directing me to put 
on the political harness again ; and by the late papers I 
find that I am to speak once a day, commencing on Thurs- 
day next, until the election on the first Monday of Septem- 
ber, and must often travel from forty to sixty miles each 
day. I have not the remotest idea where most of the ap- 
pointments are, as many of the names of the cities (three 
cabins constitute a city here) I had never so much as 
heard of before. As it was my purpose some time this 
summer to visit the leading mining-districts of the Terri- 
tory, I shall do so while the political campaign is in pro- 
gress, as it will afford the best possible opportunity to 

( 239 ) 



240 WESTERN GENEROSITY AND PRODIGALITY. 

mingle with the people and acquire reliable information 
relative to the wondrous mineral wealth of Montana. I 
made my first appearance before a mountain-audience on 
Thursday last, and during the whole of the speaking 
there was a degree of order and attention that Eastern 
audiences could often imitate with profit. 

I have seen the Far- Western people in almost every 
phase of life, and I have never, in a single instance, found 
respectful conduct on the part of a stranger met in any 
other way than with a just, if not a generous, measure of 
respect. I have already written of their horse-races, their 
theatres, their churches, their reading-rooms, and their 
proverbial hospitality. That they are merciless on " bilks" 
and pretenders generally, is true; but no matter how 
humble the straightforward visitor may be, he is received 
with the warmest cordiality, and will meet with generous 
hearts and welcome boards wherever he may find the 
camp of the miner. Every settlement in Montana, and 
every city as well, is but a mining-camp. Virginia City 
is but the centre of the great Alder camp ; and Helena is 
the same for the various gulches which surround it. They 
are sustained solely by the mining-interests about them, 
and the cities advance or recede with feverish haste just as 
the mines improve or degenerate. There are agricultural 
settlements in Deer Lodge, Jefferson, Madison, and Gal- 
latin; but there is not a farmer — or ranchman, as they are 
called — who has not his claims, or fractions of claims, on 
various gulches and leads, and he is merely farming to 
live until his slumbering wealth is developed by others 
more able than himself. 

As a rule, the successful gulch-miners are most improvi- 
dent; and of the scores of men who came here without a 
dollar and made from ten to fifty thousand dollars of gold 
out of Alder Gulch, there are very few indeed who could 



THE RESTLESS PROSPECTER. 241 

to-day command one thousand dollars, while most of them 
are utterly ''broke." Their necessary expenses were very 
heavy, but their needless expenses were usually much 
heavier. A newspaper would bring from one to two 
dollars in gold in the days of gulch-mining, but three 
years ago. A letter usually cost five dollars. Flour cost 
from fifty cents to one dollar a pound ; and everything else 
in proportion. A cat would sell very readily in the days 
of gulch-mining for one hundred dollars in gold, and the 
display of pets of any kind was one of the easiest means 
of reaching the miner's well-filled buckskin bag. Then 
came the gambler's claim, and the fever of speculation, 
and what the indulgence of the appetites left was mostly 
sure to be swept into the faro-bank or frittered away in 
some fancy purchase. 

' This restless, profligate, and heterogeneous mass has 
long since departed from Alder Gulch. Many of their 
rude and now tenantless cabins remain ; and the continu- 
ous ridges through the gulch for more than ten miles 
tell of the thousands of sturdy men who here delved for 
the precious metal, gathered it in fabulous sums, and 
scattered it as lavishly as they found it. Now most of 
them are spending their time in prospecting, and earn a 
precarious subsistence by resuming legitimate labor when 
stern necessity leaves them no other channel through 
which to find bread. I have already spoken of this class 
of men. How much they do for the world, and how little 
for themselves, but few can appreciate. It is to them that 
the nation at large, and all who profit by mining-opera- 
tions, are indebted for unlocking the vast wealth of the 
mountains ; but the fruits of their labors are in most 
cases gathered by strangers. They sow through merci- 
less storms and spiteful snows, while others reap in the 
sunshine of golden harvest. 



242 SUNDAY IN VIRGINIA CITY. 

Although there seems to be general safety to person 
and property in Montana, and a leaven of healthy moral 
tone apparently pervades all circles, the outward signs of 
morality, as recognized in the East, are among the novelties 
of the Territory. Sunday is the main business-day of Yir- 
ginia City. On that day the gambler's saloon, licensed by 
law, is gayest and receives its largest profits. Most of 
the stores are open and drive their briskest trade on that 
day. The streets swarm with miners, who gather in their 
week's wages or "clean up" in their pockets, and com- 
merce readil}^ accommodates itself to their wishes and 
wants. Every corner in the main street has an auction- 
eer, whose stentorian voice is raised to its utmost volume 
to compete with that of his rival who is bawling out his 
bargains on the opposite corner ; and through the crowd 
the horse-jockey and his mounted salesman ride, John- 
Gilpin-like, expecting every one to look out for his own 
neck and limbs. ''Cheap John," whose sign I have seen 
in every Western town, deals out heavy pepper-and-salt 
suits for thirty-five dollars each, and sends a score or two 
of the mountaineers home every Sunday in his favorite 
costume. He had trouble in fitting me when I called for a 
suit, and invited me to come on the following Sunday, when 
he would open his new goods. In answer to my inquiry 
whether Monday would not answer as well, he gave me a 
look of pity, as if he considered me totally unfitted for life 
in this region, and expressed the belief that I would soon 
"get over that Eastern notion." Of the six mills in this 
section, that of the Montane Gold and Silver Mining Com- 
pany is the only one that suspends operations on Sunday- 
Such a thing as a sermon I have neither heard nor heard 
of since I have been in Union City. Occasionally a stray 
shepherd comes along to look after his lost sheep wander- 
ing through the mountains; but as a rule the shepherd 



SUNDAY IN UNION CITY. 243 

gets lost among the sheep, and seems to prefer glittering 
nuggets of gold from the gulches and mines to the prom- 
ised glittering stars in his future crown for the salvation 
of souls. I have had bishops and divines at my frugal 
board; but they were merely viewing the confines of their 
commands, and did not tarry to expound the gospel. 

There is now some show of Sunday in Union City, but 
hj most Eastern observers it would be regarded as a micro- 
scopic view. The miners and other laborers reluctantly 
leave their work, and the mill stands in apparently uneasy 
solitude. Here may be seen an innocent game of quoits ; 
there a pair of bronzed arms kneading the bread for the 
coming week ; yonder the sounds of the axe tell that there 
will be a bountiful supply of firewood to serve through 
the days allotted to regjular labor; and thus throughout 
the city the odd chores are done up to save what is re- 
garded as the more precious time Avhen wages can be 
earned. Some gather in their ponies — for many miners 
keep their ponies, letting them graze and roam at pleas- 
ure until wanted, when they seldom search in vain for 
them — and take a pleasure-ride; others, armed with pick 
and shovel, devote the day to prospecting for new mines. 
There is no Sunday-school, no church, no public observance 
of religious ceremonies in the city. 

Two bright-faced little girls, one rollicking boy, and one 
infant constitute the children of the town ; and one of them 
drew tears from eyes unused to the melting mood as she 
twined her little arms about our necks, from house to house, 
and kissed us all a long good-by. She was the fairest and 
most fragile flower of the mountains. When she came to 
gladden the little cabin on the hill-side, she was tried in the 
scales, and the needle quivered about the figure three, as 
if unwilling to fix that low standard to the little lump of 
mortality that filled the swaddling clothes ; but in obedi- 



244 DEPARTURE OF LITTLE EVA. 

ence to the laws of gravity it pointed to three pounds as 
the "heft" of the little stranger. The pure breezes of five 
brief mountain-summers had fanned her marble cheeks 
when I came, and infused some strength into her still 
delicate frame. Lovely and affectionate in disposition 
as her finely chiseled face was beautiful, and fastidious 
in her dress as her most cultivated Eastern sisters, she 
was as a bright sunbeam wherever she wandered, and the 
horny hand of toil would steal a fond caress as she tripped 
along. Each day I claimed and received a portion of her 
companionship ; and I only knew how much I prized her 
daily prattling when she was about to start for "the 
States." She knew no home but Union City, and to her 
the whole world was embraced within the five mountain- 
cliffs which shut us in from even the sight of a habitation 
or the evidence of fellowship. She had already passed 
the severe ordeal of her " aunties" and " grandmothers" 
when she reached me, and her soft blue eyes were flooded 
as she gave me her last embrace and kiss and promised 
as usual to come again to see me "the morrow day." I 
gave her my best equipage — a brace of sober oxen and a 
homely cart — for her journey to the coach-office, and there 
were many longing looks and tender regrets as the slow 
but steady cortege passed around " Lincoln Avenue" to dis- 
appear behind the abrupt bluff beyond. Strong men, long 
used to rugged mountain-life, leaned upon their picks and 
spades as little Eva passed from among them, and thought 
more of "home" than they dared to tell. Alice, her only 
companion, was bowed in inconsolable grief, her red dishev- 
ded locks streamed in the air, and her sobs broke painfully 
upon all as she followed her playmate until the last fare- 
well was given, when she sought the child's last refuge 
from grief in a hearty cry. To her it seemed as if the 
sun had gone out in perpetual darkness, and the future 



^^ CORRALED'' IN THE MOUNTAINS. 245 

appeared as onlj^ a dreary, withered waste. Alice is a 
bright waif with more than a common share of nature's 
better qualities, and she floats down life's unseen current 
with a smile and a kind heart for all. We have a per- 
sistent difference in our theology, as she insists that her 
aunt Mary was her creator, while I have maintained that 
we have all a common and an infinite author of our being. 
She staggered at times in her belief, but finally relapsed 
hopelessly into her original conviction, because the common 
Creator had not created sausages — a favorite dish of hers, 
and of whose origin she desired to be informed. She is 
now the pet of the city, and each day brings her a fullness 
of pleasure. 

It has been my fortune to get " corraled" every now and 
then in my journey. Between Indians and storms, I was 
detained three weeks in Denver ; and now the elements 
and the Indians seem to combine again to prevent my 
return home. The Missouri River, which was navigable 
last fall until October, has been falling so rapidly that it is 
feared no more boats will get up to Fort Benton, and the 
Indians have practical possession of the overland route. 
As things are now, I have but one chance to get back with 
any show of safety this fall, and that is by pack-mules 
over the Rocky range to the Columbia River, thence to 
the Oregon coast, and around by San Francisco to New 
York — a journey of nearly two months. I borrow no 
trouble, however, on account of these mishaps. I can 
stand it in the mountains as long as the government and 
the people on the line can stand the Indians on the over- 
land route, and hope to come out of the trial improved in 
health. 



LETTER XXYI. 

The City of Hoggum. — How it got its Name. — The Hoggum Hust- 
ings. — An Unsympathizing Audience and an Uninspired 
Speaker. — -A Hospitable Pennsylvania Farmer. — A Hot Kide 
across the Prairies and Cliffs. — Rest and Kefreshments on the 
Madison. — The Madison Valley. — The Devastation of the Grass- 
hoppers. — Crossing the Hot Springs Divide. — A Continued Belt 
of Grold-Leads. — Proposed Military and Prospecting Campaign 
into the Yellowstone. — The M. M., or Montana Militia. — How 
they deal with the Indians. — Hot Springs District. — The Quartz- 
Mills and Mines. — Obstacles to Successful Mining. — A Political 
Meeting. — Interesting Discussion. — Rocky Mountain Audiences 
and Orators. — Pleasant Entertainment at Lower Hot Springs. — 
A Mountain-Dairy. — Prices of Milk and Butter. — Dinner in the 
Gallatin Valley. — A Missouri Spinster the Hostess. — Welcomed 
to Bozeman. — Another Political Meeting. — Entertained by the 
Lawyer of the City. — One Room for Chamber. Dining-room, and 
Office. — Down Gallatin Valley. — Its Beauty and Fruitfulness. — 
Political Meeting at Gallatin City. — But One Republican present. 
— The Head of the Missouri. — Another Hot Drive to Hoggum. 

Hoggum, Montana Terr., August 20, 1867. 
The city bearing the romantic title of Hoggum is a little 
mining-camp near the Missouri River, some thirty miles 
below the junction of the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin. 
The mining-gulch in which it is situated was discovered 
last spring; and it is charged that a few parties '' hogged 
up" the whole of the pay-claims before the usual stampede 
thereto was fairly inaugurated, and the disappointed ad- 
venturers named the new camp Hoggum and turned away 
from it in disgust. A little branch camp near the main 
(246) 



AN UNSYMPATHTZING AUDIENCE. 247 

one is known only as " Cheatem ;" and the whole outfit is 
regarded by the itinerant miners as a sort of fraud upon 
the profession. Some of the more poetical Montanians 
have endeavored to change the name of the city to 
Springville ; but when they placard the place for public 
meetings they go back to the original title. I had spoken 
daily for nearly a week, and traveled from thirty-five to 
forty miles each day over hard divides, under scorching 
suns, and with a miserable team, and I did not regret par- 
ticularly that I was behind time in reaching Hoggum, as 
I hoped thereby to escape a speech. It was fully eight 
o'clock when I arrived there, and the deserted streets of the 
camp plainly indicated that, if a public meeting had been 
thought of, the idea had been abandoned. The city was, 
however, crowded with brawny miners, most of them in 
and about the rude cabin saloons which comprise nearly 
one-half the buildings in the camp; and, as they had fairly 
set in to their favorite games of poker and all-fours, I sup- 
posed that they could not be congregated for so tame an en- 
tertainment as a political speech from a worn-out stumper. 
But I was not to escape in that way. A prominent 
Republican merchant, with whom I stopped, had a bonfire 
blazing before his store in a few minutes, a box was rolled 
out for a rostrum, and in less than ten minutes over a hun- 
dred miners had gathered around the door. Begrimed 
with dust, and tired, sore, and hungry, I mounted the stand 
and waded through a short speech, to which two-thirds of 
the audience listened with sullen silence, and the other 
portion put in occasional cheers at stated intervals, appar- 
ently as a matter of duty, and usually without reference 
to the fitness of the moment. The truth was that two- 
thirds of my audience were Missourians, or Democrats of 
like proclivities, and they attended the meeting merely to 
vary their usual evening routine of cards. It is possible, 



248 A HOSPITABLE PENNSYLVANIA FARMER. 

too, that they hoped to have a row, as they had enjoyed that 
'' delectable pleasure" the evening before (Sunday), when 
the regular Democratic meeting of the campaign had been 
held there, and, as there were not enough Republicans in 
the camp to get up a shindy, they got it up on their own 
hook, and proceeded to mutilate each others' mugs. The 
meeting being over, the audience adjourned to the differ- 
ent saloons, and only the excuse of indisposition exoner- 
ated me creditably from imbibing Hoggum strychnine. I 
hastened to the ranch of an old Pennsylvanian, two miles 
distant, on the river-bank, and was welcomed with the pro- 
verbial hospitality of the Far-Western people. Mr. Yandil- 
berg, from Washington county, Pennsylvania, has the finest 
farm I have found in the beautiful valleys of Montana ; and 
his was the first modern house and furnishing I have met 
with in the rural districts of the Territory. His farm lies on 
the river-bottom, and his large fields waved with the most 
luxuriant and bountiful crops of wheat, oats, and barley. I 
felt this morning like staying a day with him, regardless 
of political appointments ; but I am in charge of the Cen- 
tral Committee, the driver is under positive orders to de- 
liver me in Helena this morning, and soon I must start out 
for another hot, dusty, and most tedious journey of thirty- 
five miles, to be dumped out of the wagon and put up to 
speak in the principal city of Montana. But I shall not 
borrow trouble, as it will neither cool the air nor inspire 
oratory. 

Excepting the hard drives over parched and dusty prai- 
ries and bluff's almost blistered by the pitiless rays of the 
sun, the trip has been rather a pleasant one, and abound- 
ing in interest. I left Yirginia City on horseback at noon, 
to reach an appointment thirty-five miles distant that even- 
ing. To escape the dust, we took an Indian trail, and 
traveled twenty miles without seeing a residence. Only 



THE MADISON VALLEY. 249 

the abandoDod and well-nigh decayed ranch of Slade re- 
lieved the uniform garb of nature, now withered beneath 
the intensely hot suns of the heated term, save where some 
little stream defied the drought and preserved the verdure 
of the dwarfed growth along its banks. The Yigilanters 
had summarily ended the mortal career of Slade by swing- 
ing him to a cross-beam, and his rude grave is still marked 
by a pile of stones close by his deserted ranch. A fine 
spring, carefully walled in by the hands of the desperado, 
refreshed my Democratic guide and myself, and from thence 
for ten miles we did not find cool water. The heat was 
fearfully intense, and even the usual welcome breeze that 
tempers the hot rays of the prairie was utterly forgetful 
of its duty. Occasionally we would get into a little clus- 
ter of alder-bushes where water had been, and stop for a few 
minutes to enjoy the shade, and once or twice little streams 
crossed our trail, but were too warm to satisfy thirst. We 
could refresh our dripping horses, but could not take 
time to rest, as, with two long, steep spurs of the mount- 
ains to cross, we had no time to spare. After twenty 
miles had been traveled, we came out on Meadow Creek, 
near to the Madison River, and found a pleasant ranchman, 
clear, soft mountain-water, plenty of ice, and sweet bread 
and butter. It was one of the most grateful entertainments 
I had enjoyed for a long time ; and, after an hour of rest 
and pasturage for our horses, we started to climb the last 
divide into the Hot Springs district. 

Meadow Creek comes from the mountain-range north of 
the Madison River, and empties into the river just as it 
turns from the Madison Valley to rush off through a deep, 
narrow canon. Nearly the whole valley is visible from 
Meadow Creek, and just now its aspect is that of one vast 
field of desolation. The table-lands, which have never 
yet been cultivated, are parched into a pale pink color, 

99* 



250 DEVASTATION OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. 

and the only sign of life is a narrow green line that winds 
up the valley, following the serpentine course of the 
river. But even where the moisture from the river was 
sufficient to satisfy the wants of vegetation, the grasshop- 
pers devastated almost every field and garden. With the 
first soft breath of spring they came up out of the ground 
— where the eggs had been deposited the year before — by 
millions, and marched in countless throngs wherever any- 
thing green and succulent invited them. Here and there 
a field or farm escaped their destructive visits, without any 
visible reason for their forbearance ; but, as a rule, they 
cleaned the fields and gardens to the very earth, and as 
often as the roots would start out fresh stems or leaves 
they would renew the attack, and keep repeating it while 
anything grew to tempt their insatiate appetites, until 
wounded and exhausted vegetation gave up the unequal 
contest. The potato-crop alone they have spared, and it 
will be very large; but the Madison valley, one of the 
most fertile prairies of the mountains, will not harvest as 
much wheat, barley, and oats as were sown last spring. 
Nor does the terrible plague end with present destruction. 
The now full-grown grasshoppers have again deposited 
their eggs, and the ranchmen have fair notice that they 
may sow next season, but cannot reap. I learn that these 
winged pests usually disappear after the third year, but 
seldom sooner. 

In crossing the eastern fork of Meadow Creek I found the 
first evidence of the work of the miner. The water was 
muddy and carrying the sluiced earth down to the river. 
Most of the leads discovered in the Hot Springs district 
are on the eastern slope of the divide; but I noticed dur- 
ing the whole journey the evidences of continuous gold- 
leads running in a direct northeast line from Summit to 
Hot Springs, a distance of nearly forty miles. Where the 



THE MONTANA MILITIA. 251 

belt starts on the mountains beyond Summit City, fully a 
score of good leads are more or less developed, and some of 
them are of wonderful richness. From that point the leads 
seem to be in an unvarying line, regardless of the confused 
formation of the many cliffs they cross at all angles, and 
end only in the great foot-hills which divide the Gallatin 
Yalley from the broken mountains on the west. That the 
belt ends even there, I think improbable ; for the range 
dividing the Gallatin from the Yellowstone "prospects" 
in almost every gulch, and undoubted evidences of the ex- 
istence of rich leads are abundant, not only on the Yellow- 
stone range, but as far beyond as the adventurous pros- 
pector has braved the scalping-knife of the savage. I 
hazard little in saying that before five years there will be 
one succession of mining-camps from the Rocky range 
southwest of Yirginia clear through the Gallatin and Yel- 
lowstone ranges on to, or beyond, Wind River and Big 
Horn Mountains. In this I do not rely upon conjecture 
merel}^ ; for hurried prospects have been made in the re- 
gions named, and in every instance satisfactory results 
have been obtained. 

The Montana militia are about to start out on an 
offensive campaign against the Indians,* and I noticed 
that every company is supplied with pans and other im- 
plements to test the quality of the diggings as they clear 
the Indian from their path. There will be some five 
hundred of them, and there are not enough hostile In- 
dians in the mountains to impede the progress of that 
number of mountain-volunteers. There are several thou- 
sand of the savages — enough to defy General Sherman 



* This expedition was stopped by order of General Terry, com- 
mander of the military district. Had it been allowed to proceed, 
the country would have received reliable information of the min- 
eral and ao'ricultural wealth of the Yellowstone reo-ion. 



252 HOT SPRINGS DISTRICT. 

with over eight thousand men; but they will not raid 
upon five hundred earnest men who are not cramped, as 
the savages well know, by the sentimentalism of Sherman's 
orders. When they first went upon the border, after the 
Indians had murdered Bozeman and stolen a large amount 
of stock, a professedly friendly Indian stole one of their 
horses. They traced him out, surrounded the camp, and de- 
manded the thief. He was promptly surrendered, because 
the chief knew that the militia meant ''business," and he 
was made to dance a hasty jig on nothing under the limb 
of a cotton-tree, in sight of the camp of his tribe. Inter- 
woven in his hair they found the tresses from a white 
female scalp ; and the Indian was scalped to add another 
to the innumerable evidences of the atrocities of the sav- 
ages, who are fed, paid, and armed by the government to 
murder the defenseless settlers of the West. These brave 
volunteers, each of whom has a personal account to settle 
with the savage, are about to prospect the Yellowstone, 
Wind River, and Big Horn regions; and it they find 
gold, as I doubt not they will, the Indian question north 
of the Platte and east of the mountains will speedily settle 
itself. How it will be settled, the bleaching skeletons or 
hurried graves of the red man alone will tell. 

I reached Sterling City, the central camp of the Hot 
Springs district, about sunset, and was hospitably wel- 
comed by Mr. Pratt, of the New York and Montana Min- 
ing Company. I found his experience but the old story of 
inflated hopes, the most unwise direction in the outset, and 
disappointment in the end. To save the cost of boiler and 
engine and transportation, they erected a water-mill. The 
water failed, and, between ditches, flumes, etc., they have 
now expended ten thousand dollars on their power, and 
can run but half the mill in the dry season, and stop en- 
tirelv in severe winter weather. Thev are now about to 



A POLITICAL n/scrssiox. 253 

erect an engine, and then will have a good mill, at nearly- 
double cost. Their leads developed unsatisfactorily, and 
they do nothing now but custom-work at fifteen dollars 
per ton in currency. They have numerous good leads 
around them, still in the hands of the miners, and they are 
wisely content to pay expenses now, and make fortune cer- 
tain, as they can, in the future. Professor Ward is about 
finishing a first-class mill close by. It is conceived, manu- 
factured, and erected on the most scientific principles, and 
will want only plenty of good ores to give it a high meas- 
ure of success. The district has the ores, but the com- 
pany has not, so far as developed; and I was sorry to see 
so magnificent an enterprise measurably or wholly at the 
mercy of others. The Clark mill was idle — cause, want of 
ore. These three mills are in the midst of hundreds of 
thousands of tons of good ore, and in a district where mil- 
lions of capital will soon be profitably employed in the pro- 
duction of the precious metal. I saw ores from half a dozen 
leads, all of which have large strata of gold-bearing rock 
and are easily mined, which yield from forty to sixty 
dollars per ton, and some of them yield as high as one 
hundred dollars per ton. In the midst of these remarkable 
mines there is not, as yet, a single prosperous mill, for the 
reason that the mills were located, as a rule, on speculative 
mines, and the original discoverers still own the valuable 
leads. This mutual wrong to both the miner and the capi- 
talist will soon be overcome, and there will be many most 
successful mining companies in the Hot Springs district. 

Soon after dark, several hundred of the miners gathered 
in the central part of the city, and we devoted the even- 
ing to a free discussion of national politics in general and 
Montana politics in particular. If any ambitious Eastern 
orator supposes that it is an easy task to declaim to the 
people of the mountains, and that any sort of speech- 



254 UPPER HOT SPRINGS DISTRICT. 

making will be accepted as a treat, he would do well not to 
attempt to carry his theory into practice. 1 have never 
been before audiences in the East where political questions 
were better understood than by the people who compose 
public meetings in Montana, and I can conceive of no 
worse place for pretentious stumpers than just here. They 
not only detect the want of fitness for the task of enlight- 
ening them, but they are merciless in exposing it on the 
spot. Every public speaker in this region must be pre- 
pared for any questions the audience may see fit to propose ; 
and it is deemed no breach of propriety for a Democrat to 
get up at a Republican meeting, after the regular speakers 
are through, and reply to the speeches. This was done at 
Sterling by a Democratic candidate, who directed his an- 
swer to Mr. Claggett, the silver-tongued orator of the 
mountains ; and I have never listened to a more chaste, elo- 
quent, and logical speech than was his reply. Cavanaugh 
and Sanders, the rival candidates for Congress, are both 
singularly gifted on the stump, and as skillful as able ; and 
almost every portion of the Territory can turn out cam- 
paigners who would rank with our ablest disputants in the 
old-settled States. Both parties seem to attend all political 
meetings, and the speeches here, as a rule, are above the 
average of Eastern addresses in point of candor and re- 
spect for political differences. 

I spent most of the next day in visiting the mills and 
mines of the Upper Hot Springs district, and there, as 
everywhere else I have been in Montana, I was bewildered 
by the profusion of mineral wealth. The time for its sys- 
tematic and successful development seems not yet at hand, 
but it cannot be long de]a3^ed. The interests of capital 
and miners need only to be harmonized to give a very high 
measure of success to both. So far, they have seemed to 
be in antagonism — a policy mutually disastrous ; but grad- 



A MOUNTAIN-DAIRY. 255 

ually they are progressing toward concerted action. When- 
ever it is once known here that Eastern capitalists cannot 
be cheated into the purchase of undeveloped leads at enor- 
mous prices, there will be a wholesome change in the man- 
agement of mines. They will be developed by their owners, 
under the encouraging policy of the mill-men, and capital 
can then be invested wisely and safely, and the owners of 
valuable mines will realize just prices for them. 

As my next appointment was in Bozeman City, forty 
miles distant, over two hard divides or mountain-spurs, we 
concluded to shorten the trip by making a portion of it in 
the cool of the evening. Mr. Muflfly had overtaken me at 
Sterling with a hack, bringing his wife and Mrs. McC: so 
we had a party of five, and a miserable livery team. The 
first evening, we went down to the Lower Hot Springs dis- 
trict, where the more recent, and, I believe, the richest, dis- 
coveries have been made in gold-leads. A mill is in course 
of erection, and three prominent leads now promise an in- 
exhaustible supply of first-class ore to half a dozen mills. 
We stopped at a ranch, and by dark several other way- 
farers had joined us, to lodge for the night. The land- 
lady was a most intelligent and agreeable dame, but with- 
out a maid or cook, and herself confined to bed by a dis- 
eased limb. In addition to lodging the manj^ travelers on 
the route, she keeps thirty cows — all of excellent stock, and 
in the best of order — and raises all the calves of the herd. 
Her butter is worth from sixty cents to one dollar per pound 
in gold, and her new milk sells readily at thirty cents per 
quart. Two young men milked the cow^s and fed the 
calves, and the son of the landlady came in with his team 
about sunset, after which he prepared us a most bountiful 
and delicious meal. One of the guests was a returned 
Salmon-River miner, who had staked and lost in that stam- 
pede ; another was a Gallatin farmer, out on a four days' 



256 THE GALLATIN VALLEY. 

journey to sell a part of his crop ; and another was a pros- 
pecter in search of his truant pony, who had strayed off 
while the master was industriously panning for a color or 
a prospect. After supper, the gentlemen were ushered 
into the spare room of the house, in one end of which a 
cheerful fire sparkled in the large, old-fashioned chimney ; 
carefully-laid ox-hides made a soft carpet for the floor, and 
the robed bunks served for chairs until bedtime. The 
ladies had a regular bed, in the kitchen, with the land- 
lady, and all were comfortably provided for. After a sound 
sleep and an excellent breakfast, we started for the Gallatin 
Valley. For some ten miles after crossing the Madison 
River we were gradually ascending the divide. The bluffs 
were broken in the wildest confusion, and thrown up in the 
most unique and varied fashion, running in every possible 
direction, and sometimes forming the most unnatural junc- 
tions. The lower or table lands were covered with the 
finest growth of grass I have seen in the mountains, but it 
was all withered by the continued drought, excepting occa- 
sionally where some little stream preserved the life of vege- 
tation on its banks. But, notwithstanding its apparently 
dried-up and dead condition, the grass is most nutritious, 
and stock of all kinds will thrive better on it than even on 
the finest green pastures of the East. On this dead grass, 
oxen will winter in the valleys in ordinary winters, and 
come out in the spring excellent beef. During unusually 
severe winters, like the last, when the snow was so deep 
that cattle could not graze, many are lost, and all come out 
of winter \toov ; but generally they thrive well without hay. 
When we reached the top of the divide, the beautiful 
valley of the Gallatin presented itself in one grand view, 
with clusters of large, green trees on the river-banks, the 
golden wheat-fields, blooming gardens, and fresh meadows 
which mark the thrift and comfort of the husbandman. 



WELCOMED TO BOZEMAN. 25 T 

From where we entered the valley, it was fifteen miles 
directly across it to Bozeman City, and I had an excellent 
opportunity to see its bountiful crops and countless herds. 
We crossed the river on a substantial bridge, and a few 
miles beyond stopped before a neat-looking cabin to get 
dinner and feed our horses. None of the family were at 
home but a grown daughter ; but she informed us that she 
would promptly prepare our meal. After caring for the 
horses, I went into the house, and soon found that one of 
the inevitable Missourians was our host. Thousands of 
them came here in the early part of the war, because they 
were too cowardly to fight with Price and too faithless 
to oppose him. I found Brick Pomeroy's paper the only 
literature in the house, and read his latest justification of 
the assassination of President Lincoln, while the gentle 
Missouri spinster prepared our dinner. If I had not 
known the fact before, the appearance the table presented, 
when ready for the guests, would have told that its pre- 
siding genius never had its culture farther north than Mis- 
souri. We had light warm biscuits, good coffee, butter 
and fruits, and a palatable dish of new potatoes and peas ; 
but the butter-dish was a black tin pan that looked as if 
it served for a fat lamp in the evening, and, as there seemed 
to be but two cups and saucers in the house, they were 
divided around, each guest getting a cup or a saucer, and 
with it a greasy, dirty, battered tin for a cup or a lamp- 
pan for a saucer. With good cooking, it was made so re- 
pulsive by the marks of the slattern that half the relish 
was lost. In due time we reached Bozeman City, and 
were kindly welcomed by the citizens, — a deputation meet- 
ing us a few miles out of the little village of a dozen cabins. 
Comfortable quarters were provided for the ladies by an 
extra bed spread on the earthen kitchen floor, and I was 
handed over as the guest of Mr. Meredith (nephew of Hon. 

23 



258 DOWN GALLATIN VALLEY. 

Wm. M. Meredith, of Philadelphia), who is the only law- 
yer of the city, and has his office, kitchen, dining-room, etc. 
all in a little cabin ten feet square, with an odd wing for a 
spare bed. He posted me on the politics of that section, 
and gave my forthcoming speech the proper inclinations. 
In the evening the church was crowded with a mixed 
audience of Democrats, Republicans, ladies, and both 
soldiers and infants in arms, and I was introduced by the 
embarrassed President as " Hon. J. K. McCulloh," in 
terms which would have been embarrassing to me had I 
not been able to disclaim both the name and the compli- 
ments. After the meeting, the city politicians kept me up 
until after midnight, discussing politics and Indians, — the 
vital theme with all Western men. I was glad when they 
departed and allowed me to rest. At six in the morning 
my host waked me, saying that he had breakfast ready, 
and the bed must be taken up before the table could be set ; 
and, by the time I got my heavy eyes open and finished a 
simple but sluggish toilet, he had the breakfast on the table. 
He had delicious Yellowstone trout, potatoes, sweet butter 
and bread, and excellent coffee ; and I have enjoyed few 
meals better. Breakfast over, the dishes were hurriedly 
washed and put away, and the kitchen transformed into 
an attorney's office ready for clients. 

From Bozeman City we had thirty-five miles down the 
Gallatin Valley to Gallatin City, where my next appoint- 
ment was to be filled. It is the only valley I have seen 
since I left home that promises to rival the beautiful and 
fruitful Cumberland. It is from five to twenty miles in 
width, has cheerful streams crossing it at frequent inter- 
vals, is bounded by mountain-ranges on both sides, and 
has the most luxuriant crops I have ever seen. I saw 
hundreds of acres of spring wheat, just in blossom, which 
will yield not less than forty bushels to the acre, and many 



POLITICAL MEETING AT GALLATIN CITY. 259 

small fields of winter wheat which will yield from fifty to 
sev^enty bushels. It is the favorite grazing valley of the 
Territory, and swarms with finely-bred cows and the 
most elegant stock-cattle. It is but a few miles from the 
hostile Indian tribes ; but three hundred mountain-volun- 
teers protect the entire border of fifty miles, and the savage 
turns from them in terror to defy the mockery of eight or 
ten thousand regular troops. A jolly Massachusetts Demo- 
crat made us at home for dinner, and followed us to the 
Gallatin meeting. When we arrived there, we found none 
but Democrats in the city (composed of three cabins and 
a flouring-mill), and Major Campbell, the veteran citizen of 
the place, opened his hospitable doors and made us more 
than welcome. Two of his highly-educated and accomplished 
daughters are married and settled in the neighborhood ; 
another, just a graduate from the East, brightens the cabin 
with her music and smiles ; while the good old people greet 
the traveler with old-time cordiality. Entertaining is, I 
presume, their main reliance for a livelihood, but they do 
it with a fascination to which the East is a stranger. At 
the usual hour for country meetings some forty men had 
gathered as my audience ; but there was but one Republi- 
can in the whole congregation. He could not nominate 
himself for President, and he could not propose any one 
else. The problem was finally solved by the venerable 
major, a sturdy Democrat, calling the meeting to order 
and nominating the lone-star Republican as President. I 
may say that I spoke with reasonable prudence, and 
thereby secured respectful attention in return. I doubt 
whether I converted more than half the audience, and don't 
feel at all sure that I converted any. 

In the morning we made an early start, in order to have 
a spare hour at the junction of the Madison, Jeff'erson, and 
Gallatin Rivers, where the Missouri is formed. From a 



2 GO ANOTHER HOT DRIVE TO IIOGGUM. 

bluff in the peninsula between the Madison and Jefferson 
the three rivers are visible for miles up their respective 
valleys, while the Missouri can be seen for a considerable 
distance as it dashes off through a deep, narrow canon on 
its northward course. From the river we turned to the 
northwest to cross the divide into Crow Creek Valley, and 
had a tedious and hot journey over another long spur of 
the mountains, and then across a burnt-up and desolated 
valley. For fifteen miles we did not see water, and our 
worn-out team seemed almost famished for drink when we 
at last reached a clear, cool spring on the prairie. After 
crossing Crow Creek, on which there are a number of fine 
farms, we had to climb another high spur, on w^hich I saw 
for the first time in the Far West the red slate soil of the 
East, covered with a low growth of pine. After reaching 
the summit, we found that we had circled around to the 
Missouri River again, and found it skirted with most 
bountiful fields. A pleasant drive of a few miles along 
the river-bank, in the cool of the evening, brought us to the 
renowned city of Hoggum, whose history forms the open- 
ing chapter of this letter. I would be glad to spend a daj^ 
or two among the bright harvests and green shades of 
the Missouri Yalley ; but the election is only a few days 
distant, and the show must go on in Helena to-night. 



LETTER XXYII. 

Crossing the Plains and Divides to the Madison. — Madison Val- 
ley. — Its Fertility. — Indifferent Farming. — Mormon Industry 
and System wanted. — Eavages of the Grasshoppers. — Swarms of 
Millions migrating from one Valley to another. — No Crops next 
Year. — The Crickets and their Eavages. — Hot Springs Mines 
and Mills again. — The Gallatin Valley. — Its Beautiful Streams, 
Bountiful Farms, and Splendid Herds. — Farming a Permanent 
Business in the Gallatin. — Fine Crops and Implements. — Yield 
and Price of Wheat. — Bozeman City. — Colonel Bozeman. — His 
Murder by the Savages. — The Montana Militia — Gallatin City. 
— Its Hasty Eise and Decline. — Its Founders ignorant of Geog- 
raphy. — The City Cabins now grace the Prosperous Eanches. 

Gallatin City, Montana Terr., August 21, 1867. 
I STARTED Oil Wednesday last from Virginia City to 
visit the mines of the Hot Springs district, and the famed 
agricultural valleys of the Madison and the Gallatin. 
These, with Jefferson and Deer Lodge, constitute the 
main agricultural sections of the Territory of Montana. 
Leaving Virginia by an old Indian trail coursing to the 
northeast, I did not meet with the sign of a habitation for 
twenty miles, excepting the crumbling walls of the Slade 
ranch, which was consigned to decay by the summary ex- 
ecution of its owner by the Vigilants in 1864. After a 
tedious and hot ride over the main Madison "divide," we 
reached the welcome waters of Madison Creek, a pure 
mountain-stream that hurries down to join the Madison 
before it plunges into the narrow canon at the foot of the 
valley. I had to make thirty miles on horseback in the 

23* (261) 



262 MADISON VALLEY. 

afternoon to fill an appointment with the Republicans of 
Sterling, and it was anything but a pleasant journey. Be- 
hind us we could see a green line winding down the Stink- 
ing Water, but, wherever else the eye would turn, nothing 
but parched plains and hot bluffs were visible. Occasion- 
ally a little stream would cross our path and cheer us with 
a stinted growth of cottonwoods and alder bushes ; but the 
heat steamed up from the prairies and swept down from 
the cliffs with terrible intensity. Now and then we could 
get a glimpse of the Madison Yalley from some prominent 
elevation, but even there the general seared and desolate 
garb of the country was relieved but by a narrow, sinuous 
strip of verdure that seemed to hug the low banks of the 
river. On the beautiful table-lands between the river and 
the mountain-range beyond, there was the broad, pale seal 
of death to all vegetation ; and even where the narrow flats 
had been sown, the grasshoppers had bared them to the 
very earth in their relentless march. 

At Meadow Creek we stopped to rest and refresh our- 
selves and horses. The clearest and softest of mountain- 
water ran by, and the brook-trout sported, with their match- 
less grace, in its crystal ripples. Our host had an abundance 
of ice, — all that the grasshoppers had left him, — and our 
party had a delightful rest, and cooling draughts from 
nature's sweet fountains. At this point we were at the 
lower end of the Madison Yalley, and could see most of it 
from the rise in the prairie. It is the smallest of the four 
leading valleys now settled in the Territory, and has been 
very productive. At s'ome points the bottom-land on either 
side of the river widens out for several miles, and beyond 
that the ranchmen have not yet ventured to break up the 
ground. Between the river and the range that divides the 
Madison from the Yellowstone there is a broad table of 
most beautiful and fertile land, that could be easily irrigated 



INDIFFERENT FARMING. 263 

by the mountain-streams, or even by the Madison, if di- 
verted some miles above through a canal. But this would 
require more labor than the limited number of settlers now 
in the valley could afford to give to such an enterprise, 
and they therefore content themselves with the bottom- 
lands, which are so wet and cold in the spring that they 
expose their garden and field crops to the early frosts. 
Yegetation of all kinds would start several weeks earlier 
in the higher and dryer table-lands in the spring, and add 
vastly to the safety and product of the crops. 

The greatest obstacle to agricultural progress in Mon- 
tana is that scarcely one farmer regards farming as his fixed 
pursuit. Most of the ranchmen came here adventurous 
miners, and only settled on the ranches to secure a living 
for the time being until others should develop their quartz- 
lodes, or until some regular farmer should come along 
and buy them out at a large advance. Flour commanded 
as high as one hundred and forty dollars per hundred 
pounds when gulch-mining was prosperous in Bannock and 
Yirginia, and when the gulches were exhausted many 
rushed into the valleys to make a sudden fortune out of a 
single crop the next season. The next year flour was down 
to twenty dollars per sack, and the hope of sudden fortune 
vanished. Thus, most of the ranches have been improved 
in the most temporary and imperfect manner, and great 
crops have been gathered rather because of the wonderful 
fruitfulness of the soil than the skill or care of the farmers. 
In the Madison Yalley there is no farming except in locali- 
ties where irrigation needs little artificial aid ; and then it is 
not attended to with the degree of care necessary to secure 
first-class crops. If the Mormons could leave their beastly 
polygamy behind them, I would be glad to see a settlement 
of them in one of the agricultural valleys of Montana. 
Immense as the crops are now, the}^ would, upon the whole, 



264 RAVAGES OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. 

double them, and beautify their homes as they increased 
the fruitfulness of their fields. Farming is their calling, and 
they would not put out a crop each year imperfectly, ex- 
pecting that by next season they would be after some new 
diggings or prospecting for new lands. The cabins, fences, 
and all implements, as a rule, are made in the most indif- 
ferent manner by the ranchmen, because the settlers do not 
expect to remain and pursue agriculture for a livelihood. 
There are exceptions, of course, but not more than enough 
to prove the rule. 

This year the grasshoppers have almost totally de- 
stroyed the crops of Madison Valley, and last year they 
committed serious depredations upon the late crops. I 
saw them moving in the valley, and they seemed to be in 
swarms of millions. In their flight, they almost shadow 
the sun. As far as the eye can distinguish an object 
the size of one of these fearfully destructive insects, they 
may be seen circling around, apparently in general con- 
fusion ; but a careful examination shows that the count- 
less body is steadily moving on toward some desired point. 
In the evening, when the eye can face the sun, they can 
be seen until the white specks fade out in the dimness of 
distance. Thus they migrate from place to place; and 
woe to the luckless ranchman upon whose fields they 
light, if the crop is still green. But their devastation does 
not end with the destruction of the growing crop. They 
deposit their eggs while desolating the fields this season, 
and thus give the farmer notice that their successors will 
be more destructive, if possible, next year. Last summer 
they migrated into the Madison Yalley, and this spring 
the valley swarmed with little grasshoppers, who began 
their fatal work before they were half an inch in length. 
As fast as vegetables or field crops grew, they were eaten 
down, until finally the last remnant of life was destroyed, 



THE CBICKETS AND THEIR RAVAGES. 265 

and the fields and gardens were left as bare as the high- 
way. Of all vegetables, the potato alone escaped their 
devouring appetite ; and, while there is general destruction 
of crops and vegetation in the Madison Valley, there will 
be an immense yield of potatoes. Here and there a ranch 
escaped their march ; but how or why, no one can guess. 
I saw isolated fields of elegant grain, where there was 
nothing but utter waste on all the ranches for miles above 
and below them. There are but few who will venture 
next year to put out anything like full crops in the valley 
of the Madison, and many ranches will be sold out at a 
sacrifice this fall, by the ever-restless and discontented 
settlers. 

At Meadow Creek I left the river, as it rushes down 
into a deep, narrow canon, and ceases to aid the farmer 
until it reaches near to its junction with the Jefferson at 
this point. Another long and steep " divide" had to be 
crossed to reach the Hot Springs mining district, one of 
the most celebrated in the Territory. As I arrived at the 
foot of the hills, I saw for the first time the crickets, 
which are no less destructive to the crops than the grass- 
hoppers. I came suddenly upon an immense flock of them, 
covering acres of the prairie, and awkwardly jumping and 
lumbering along toward the Gallatin, as if they considered 
the Madison '' sluiced out." They are four times as large 
as the largest of Eastern house-crickets, of every color 
from black to pale yellow, and have a most clumsy motion. 
They are about an inch and a half long, half an inch 
thick, and stumble and tumble over each other, when 
frightened, in the most ludicrous style imaginable. They 
have no wings, and travel by walking or hopping, slowly 
but steadily, until they reach some field or garden on 
which to try their appetites. As they cannot fly, they 
are sometimes repulsed in their movements by water 



266 HOT SPRINGS MINES AND MILLS. 

ditches, when they flauk the ditch and move on to the 
fields of some less careful or less fortunate farmer. 

After reaching the top of the divide, a short distance 
through a narrow canon brought me to Sterling City, the 
chief mining-camp of the Hot Springs district. It is a 
modern mining-city of probably twenty cabins, all built 
within eighteen months, and most of them neatly finished. 
There are three quartz-mills just above the city, two more 
in the neighborhood, and one or two new ones on the way, 
to be used on the Hot Springs ores. It is undoubtedly 
a rich quartz-district ; but I was surprised to find that not 
a single lead had been thoroughly developed, and not a 
single mill able to command a certain supply of ore from 
its own mines. The leads are mainly owned by prospectors 
and miners, who will not sell at reasonable rates, and 
cannot develop ; and they are waiting in poverty for others 
to dig beside them, prove the value of their property, and 
make them millionaires. One mill, that was started with 
highest hopes, is doing a mere paying business by crush- 
ing custom ores at fifteen dollars per ton in currency. Its 
mines exhausted the capital of the company and supplied 
no ore ; but it is wisely managed, and is content to pay 
expenses and wait until the time comes to secure property 
that will warrant development. The best stamp-mill in 
the Territory is nearly completed there, by Professor 
Ward. It will do much for the district, and I hope that 
it may do as well for its stockholders. It is the most 
improved California machinery, is being put up regardless 
of expense, and will doubtless test the ores of the district 
very thoroughly ; but, like every other mill in the neigh- 
borhood, it has no certain source of supply from its own 
mines, and must for some time at least be measurably 
or wholly at the mercy of the miners, who well under- 
stand the advantage they possess over capitalists whose 



THE 31 AD ISO N RIVER. 267 

money is already invested and who must have valuable 
ores to secure returns. The third mill is idle for want of 
ore, while there are thousands of tons of good ore in the 
vicinity. One large lead, owned by three miners who dis- 
covered it, has been several times on the very verge of sher- 
iff's sale for twelve hundred dollars of debt. It produces ore 
cheaply that yields from fifty to eighty dollars per ton, 
and which can be mined, hauled, and reduced for less than 
twenty-five dollars per ton. It may be worth a million or 
more, as its owners estimate it ; but practical men. do not 
pretend to see into the ground, and they know that it may 
cap, or pinch, or play out entirely; and so it is likely to 
remain undeveloped for some years. As far as the partial 
developments have been made in that district, it promises 
to be most bountiful in the production of the precious 
metals. It is, so far as now known, the northeastern ter- 
minus of the great gold- belt of Montana, that starts at 
Summit (eight miles southwest of Virginia) and seems 
to run in a direct line across the country to Hot Springs. 
It is distinctly traced all the way by the discovery of leads 
for a distance of thirty-five miles. 

From Sterling I started for the upper end of the Galla- 
tin Valley. I crossed the Madison River, as it swings 
around to the north, on a substantial bridge, about four 
miles above the crossing on the Bozeman wagon-route. It 
is a beautiful stream of clear water, with pebble bottom, 
less than one hundred yards in width, and abounding in 
trout aod other fish. It has no timber at all on its banks, 
but here and there are thickets of willow bushes. As far 
as I followed it there was no bottom-land of any conse- 
quence on either side of it, and the table-lands are gravelly, 
broken, and not adapted to successful agriculture. The 
bluffs which skirt it close by are abrupt and timberless, 
and ridged by game-trails, made before the advent of the 



268 THE GALLATIN VALLEY. 

white man. After climbing another long and most tedious 
divide, made up of miles of successive prairie-hills, I at 
last reached an abrupt descent into the celebrated Gallatin 
Yalley, and the river was visible for twenty miles down 
the valley by the luxuriant growth of .timber that lines its 
banks. Where I entered it, its breadth is about twenty 
miles ; it continues down for thirty miles, ranging from 
three to twenty miles in breadth, and extends southeast, 
or up the river, probably ten miles ; but there are few set- 
tlers along the Bozeman route. It is the most magnifi- 
cent valley I have seen in the Kocky Mountains. It is 
one vast meadow, almost level, dotted with green lines 
along its numerous tributaries to the river, and its soil is 
as productive as any in the world. I crossed almost its 
entire breadth to Bozeman City, and saw its most bounti- 
ful crops of wheat, oats, barley, and buckwheat, and its 
tempting vegetables. The spring wheat is just in blos- 
som, and the winter wheat is about ready for the reaper. 
Until two years ago the settlers sowed spring wheat en- 
tirely ; but a trial of winter wheat gave such satisfactory 
results that last fall all that was in the valley sold for 
twenty-five dollars per bushel in gold, for seed. This 
season about one-tenth the harvest is winter wheat, and 
the whole crop will be sold at five dollars per bushel 
for seed again. I cannot question the evidence that 
establishes the raising of eighty bushels of winter wheat 
on an acre of ground in the valley. Even spring wheat 
usually yields forty bushels to the acre. I saw winter 
wheat on Saturday that is expected to yield seventy 
bushels to the acre ; and I do not think the calculation 
an unreasonable one. This valley is so well watered, so 
easily irrigated, and so universally productive that it is 
being rapidly settled by men who mean to follow farming 
as their calling. I saw on one splendid farm a reaper and 



MURDER OF COLONEL BOZEMAN. 209 

mower, grain-drill, hay-rake, thrashing-machine, etc., of 
the most improved Eastern pattern ; and throughout the 
valley farming seems to be regarded as a legitimate busi- 
ness. The ranchmen do not fly off to every new diggings 
reported, but are, as a rule, content to labor in seed-time 
and wait for harvest for their abundant reward. There are 
two excellent flouring-mills in the valley, — one at Bozeman 
City, on the Gallatin, and the other here, on the Madison. 
Both have the most improved turbine wheels, run two pair 
of burrs, and can each turn out one hundred sacks of flour 
(equal to fifty barrels) in twenty-four hours. Just now 
there is some depression in this valley, OAving to the low 
prices for produce; but there are vast fields of gold over 
the Yellowstone divide, and, I doubt not, in the mountains 
close by, and the day is not very distant when this section 
of Montana will be as prolific in the yield of the precious 
metals as it is now bountiful in the yield of the staff of 
life. 

Bozeman City took its name from Colonel Bozeman, 
who opened the Renno or Powder River route to Montana, 
and who was basely murdered by the Indians last spring. 
He welcomed the Indians into his camp, believing them to 
be friendly, as they professed ; and, while he was eating 
his dinner, he was butchered. Mr. Coover, of Bozeman 
City, was with him, and escaped with a wound after Boze- 
man was killed. I have had his statement of the affair ; 
and a story of Train (given in a speech in Omaha after 
looking into the Indian question from railroad-cars), that 
Bozeman had been killed for insulting a squaw, is utterly 
false, as there were no squaws with the Indians who killed 
Colonel Bozeman. Although a young man, not over thirty- 
five years of age, he had been a long time in the mount- 
ains, was very familiar with the Indians, and exerted a 
great influence over them for good. His death aroused 

24 



270 THE 3I0NTANA MILITIA. 

the Montana borders, and it will be fearfully avenged by 
the '' M. M." (Montana Militia), now in the field. General 
Sherman may occasionally hear of what they do when they 
meet hostile Indians; but most of their operations will not 
figure in official reports. One thing, however, you can 
rely upon : — they will protect Montana. Bozeman City, 
where I spent last Friday, is within sixteen miles of the 
grounds of thousands of hostile tribes, but they have not 
ventured to cross the path of three hundred mountain-volun- 
teers. Not a man has been molested since they have been 
on the border, and not a dollar's worth of property stolen 
by the savages. They prefer to go hundreds of miles in 
another direction, and make tilts against General Sher- 
man's eight thousand or ten thousand regular troops. Can- 
not the government see why they do so ? And is it so 
blind as not to see the proper remedy ? 

I left the dozen cabins of Bozeman City on Saturday for 
this place, and had a most delightful drive down the val- 
ley, skirting the river most of the way. It is the most 
beautiful stream I have seen in the mountains. Its banks 
have a thicket of large cotton-trees all the way, — the first 
trees I have seen in the Far West that deserve the name. 
Many of them are from eighteen to twenty-four inches in 
diameter. Numerous springs cross the valley, each clad 
in its garb of green willows ; and the fruitful fields and 
splendid herds of cows and stock-cattle give the valley a 
home-like appearance that is seldom seen in this region. 
At this place the Missouri River begins. The Jefferson 
and Madison Rivers unite about half a mile above, and the 
three unite a little below, where the Missouri is formed, 
and it sweeps off, through a narrow cut in the bluffs, on its 
sinuous course, to drain the great country northeast of the 
mountains and bear its waters thousands of miles hence to 
the sea. Gallatin City once had over sixty cabins, all 



GALLATIN VALLEY. 211 

erected in one season, mainly by Missourians, who believed 
that it would be the head of navigation on the Missouri ; 
but, after the city was built and no boats came for a whole 
season, some one came along and informed the enterprising 
residents that there were great falls in the river above Ben- 
ton, which stopped the boats, and the city, once so full of 
promise, fell away, until a single cabin now represents it. 
The city cabins have been taken up from time to time 
and scattered over the prairie on ranches, and while a 
speculative city has disappeared because of the want of the 
proper study of geography, pleasant ranches and prosper- 
ous ranchmen have taken its place, and made the prairie 
blossom and ripen with the golden fruits which gladden 
the heart of the husbandman. I start to-day for Spring- 
ville, and expect to reach Helena to-morrow. 



LETTER XXYIIL 

The Morning Air of the Mountains. — A Wonderful Tonic. — 
Mountain-Pasturage. — How Cattle are wintered. — Bunch 
Grass and Tender 5eef. — The Gallatin Valley again. — Its Fer- 
tility and many Advantages. — The Northern Pacific Eailroad. 
— The Navigation of the Upper Missouri. — The Kich Eegion 
east of Gallatin. — The Savage resisting Civilization. — Settle- 
ments extending East and West through Montana. — The In- 
evitable Solution of the Indian Problem. — Prickly Pear Valley. 
— Dinner and Rest. — Don Pedro and his Mistress. — Welcome 
to Helena. — Dr. Cass in Command. — His Ideas of Water as a 
Steady Beverage. — A Bottle of Wine his Sovereign Remedy. — 
Another Political Meeting. — Speech refuted in the Newspapers. 
— A Day at the Hot Springs. — Mrs. General Meagher. — Excel- 
lent Dinner and Baths. — Virtue and Vice. 



..} 



Helena Hot Spkings, 
Montana Terr., August 23, 1^ 

I WOKE up in the suburbs of Hoggum on Tuesday- 
morning, with heavy eyes and more than weary from my 
daily hard drives and stumping every evening. But the 
morning air of the mountains is the most wonderful tonic 
in the world, and a little stroll along the clear streams 
sweeping down to the Missouri, clad in their cheerful gar- 
ments of green, sharpened my appetite for an excellent 
breakfast, and soon thereafter we started for a drive of 
thirty-five miles to Helena, Our course was rather west 
of north, leaving the river to hug the mountain-range east 
of us ; and we had the usual long, hard, rough divide to 
cross to pass from the Missouri Valley to the Prickly Pear. 
(2t2) 



MOUNTAIN-PASTURAGE. 213 

As we gradually ascended the prairie to the summit, we 
were soon beyond the irrigating streams, and for ten miles 
we had to traverse an elevated table or meadow, with a 
bountiful crop of loose boulders to impede our progress. 
The grass there, as elsewhere on the undulating lands, 
was parched almost white ; but innumerable herds of the 
finest stock grazed upon it, and were fat and sleek as our 
Eastern stall-fed bullocks. An Eastern stock-grower, used 
only to the green fields of Pennsylvania, would at first 
sight pronounce these prairies unfit for pasturage ; but 
in no place in the world will stock thrive better than on 
this same seemingl}^ burnt-up grass. Although the stock 
and blades are dead, they are still nutritious ; but the 
chief sustenance of cattle and horses is in the ''bunch 
grass," to be found on all elevated lands in the mountains, 
which never loses its freshness at the roots. In the dryest 
seasons of summer, and the coldest winters, it preserves 
its perpetual greenness near the roots, and is succulent 
and most nourishing. No amount of hay or grain fed to 
cattle in the winter will ])ring them out in the spring in as 
good order as grazing on the bunch grass, if the snows do 
not fall so deep as to prevent them from reaching the 
roots ; and no other feed will make the beef so sweet, 
juicy, and tender. Hitherto all the thousands of cattle in 
Montana have been sent to the valleys to shift for them- 
selves during the winter ; but last winter was so severe 
that many hundreds were lost, because the snow denied 
them access to the grass. In the winter of 1863 
there was but little severe weather in Montana. The 
months of November, December, and January were like 
early autumn in the vicinity of Chambersburg, and the 
subsequent winter months were comparatively mild. The 
winters of 1864-5-6 were more severe, but still not suffi- 
ciently so to prevent stock from wintering very well on 

24* 



2U THE GALLATIN VALLEY AGAIN. 

grass. Last winter, however, gave Montana three months 
of terrible winter, with from two to three feet of snow in 
the valleys; and a considerable proportion of the stock 
perished. Most of those that survived were reduced 
almost to skeletons, and came out singed of most of their 
hair by the fearful severity of the winter. In a few locali- 
ties fat beef-cattle were turned out off the grass, but as a 
rule the stock wintered badly. Admonished by the ex- 
perience of last winter, most of the herders in the valleys, 
and many of the farmers, have put up hay, and will be 
prepared to feed their stock if a bad spell should arrest 
grazing. Throughout the whole agricultural regions of 
Montana I have found the finest short-horn stock. I 
doubt not that cattle develop better here than in any other 
portion of the United States east of the mountains. 

I cannot take leave of the beautiful valleys from Boze- 
man to Helena without another reference to their many 
advantages. The Gallatin is the most eastern of the 
Montana settlements, and is incomparably the finest agri- 
cultural region I have found in the Far West. I doubt 
whether even its settlers have any just appreciation of its 
future destiny. It is on the well-known Bozeman route, — 
the shortest and best-watered route to Montana, — and 
abounds with the finest pastures. The Northern Pacific 
Railroad will cross it, if it does not follow it a considera- 
ble distance, making it in all respects the most accessible 
portion of the Territory ; and a few years at most will see 
steamers land not far from Gallatin City, the lower end of 
the valley. The Missouri is navigable in the dryest season, 
for light boats, from the junction of the Jefferson, Madi- 
son, and Gallatin to the falls above Fort Benton; and a 
railway of eighteen miles there would connect the upper 
Missouri lines with the lines now plying from Benton to 
St. Louis. In addition to these advantages, now certain, 



THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 2t5 

I trust, soon to be realized, the route east from Gallatin 
Yalley abounds in equally fertile valleys and even more 
salubrious climates. The Yellowstone is confessedly one 
of the most fertile regions of the Far West, and its climate 
invites the buffalo from the Platte, hundreds of miles south, 
to winter in its more genial atmosphere. Besides the vast 
agricultural resources of this region, it is known to abound 
in precious metals ; and already the sturdy prospecter has 
gone as far as Wind River and Big Horn Mountains from 
the Gallatin, and camps now swarm on the Muscleshell, 
northeast of Bozeman. The savage has most jealously 
guarded these sections of the West, and many prospecters 
have found bloody graves as their reward for pioneering 
civilization ; but the Indian has lost all the sympathy of 
the pale-faces by his relentless savagery, and he must re- 
cede or die as the miner and ranchman advance with their 
trusty rifles and implacable hostility. Before five years 
there will be continuous settlements and mining-camps 
from the head-waters of the Missouri east, until civiliza- 
tion from east and west shall strike hands in the great 
Northern wilderness. It matters not what shall be the 
policy of the government with reference to the Indian. It 
cannot save him if it would : it will not try to divide this 
region for him, if it is wise in its policy. The march of 
progress is inexorable in its mandates, and neither troops, 
treaties, nor poetical commanders can reverse the logic of 
facts. I trust that but a few years will see the beneficent 
fruits of a generous policy on the part of the government 
in the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and 
the removal of obstructions to the navigation of the 
Missouri ; but, even if the government shall be penny-wise 
and pound-foolish enough to refuse its aid in the rapid de- 
velopment of this region of incalculable mineral and agri- 
cultural wealth, the current of progress will move steadily 



276 THE PRICKLY PEAR VALLEY. 

onward. I wish indeed that our Congress could be thrown 
into these blooming, fruitful valleys and mines of surpass- 
ing richness for a month, instead of sending committees 
to view the mountains and Indians from railroad-cars, 
usually to report in favor of the barbarous hordes whose 
distinction is measured solely by the number and atrocity 
of their butcheries. 

When we reached the summit of the divide northwest 
of Hoggum, the Prickly Pear Valley was presented in all 
its beauty. We dined sumptuously at a two-story ranch 
on savory elk-steak and the finest of vegetables, and had 
an hour of rest among the latest Eastern periodicals. I 
tried to catch up with some of my lost sleep ; but a newly- 
returning boarding-school miss kept up a perpetual strug- 
gle for the mastery of " Don Pedro," a wayward poodle- 
dog, and between them I was forbidden sleep. Don Pedro 
insisted upon being sociable with me, — prospected my 
clothes, and demanded his full share of the lounge and 
newspapers for his amusement. I could have managed 
him ; but his romantic mistress would follow him in every 
few minutes and lecture Don Pedro for his rudeness to 
strangers and playing truant with her. Although Don 
Pedro and his simpering mistress stood sentinels against 
sleep, I still had an hour of rest, and pursued my journey 
much refreshed. The Prickly Pear Yalley extends for 
some twenty or thirty miles,_ranging in width from five to 
twenty miles, and nestling in a flock of mountain-spurs 
stands Helena, the principal city of the Territory. The 
Missouri is on the same side of the mountain-range, but 
divided from the valley by high foot-hills, as it courses its 
way northward, some sixteen miles east of the city. The 
Prickly Pear traverses the valley, marking its sinuous line 
by a luxuriant growth of shrubbery, and on either side 
there are beautiful farms, with the golden wheat in shock. 



WELCOMED TO HELENA. 2tT 

The whole valley is covered with the finest pasturage, 
and countless herds graze on its bountiful and nutritious 
grasses. 

When within five miles of the city, we saw a cloud of 
dust rise ahead of us, looking as if a troop of Indians were 
upon our trail ; but, as we met it, my old friend and com- 
panion through the perilous Indian troubles of Bridger, 
Dr. Cass, surrounded us with a mounted escort of twenty- 
five men, and bid us welcome to the city of Helena. 
Among them was the postmaster of the city, who did not 
follow Nasby in firing salutes around the groceries in honor 
of A. J., but is a square-out Republican and braves every 
thing for the cause. We all dismounted in obedience to 
orders from Dr. Cass, and, after an introduction all around, 
he insisted that our team needed refreshing. He had a 
buggy, and from under the seat a willow basket temptingly 
projected. In its capacious quarters were many bottles, 
tumblers, and blocks of crystal ice ; and he insisted that all 
must partake. The scorching rays of the sun and clouds of 
dust gave me earnest reminders of the luxury of ice-water, 
and I inquired whether we could have some. "Water!" 
responded the genial doctor, with a jolly grin all over his 
face; ''water is all very well in its place, — very good for 
baptizing infants where they have such things, and excel- 
lent for sluicing out gulches ; but it don't do for a steady 
beverage up here, where the air is so thin." Suiting the 
action to the sentiment, corks flew in every direction, and 
Montana and her champions were toasted with increased 
fervor as the work progressed. We soon started for the 
city, and I could not deny the theory that sparkling wine 
refreshes the horses when imbibed by the driver or rider. 
Certain it is that the horses were more spirited than be- 
fore, the procession more punctilious in its military orders, 
if less obedient in observing them ; and we rushed into 



278 ANOTHER POLITICAL MEETING. 

the city as if the horses expected another bursting of cham- 
pagne for their benefit when we should arrive there. Stray 
horsemen, solitary and otherwise, joined us as we neared 
the city, and when we entered Main Street we had quite a 
procession. After traversing the several principal streets, 
we halted, our quarters were shown us, and fifteen minutes 
were given me to wash and dust off, when I would be 
wanted. Dr. Cass suggested and supplied a bottle of wine 
to clear the dust out of the throat while I was brushing it 
off externally, and in due time he called again and invited 
me to enjoy the cool shade of his office, where I found a 
bottle of wine already opened to revive the spirits of the 
exhausted company. In vain I pleaded the danger of head- 
ache, disordered stomach, etc. "All very well for the hot- 
house plants of the East ; but mountaineers are strangers to 
such complaints, " was the reply. From there we repaired to 
various prominent places of the city, and at each the highly 
original idea seemed to have just occurred to the doctor 
that a bottle of wine must be smashed. Barn-door hand- 
bills confronted me at every corner, reminding me that I 
was to be the speaker of the evening at a mass-meeting to 
be congregated in a few hours, and the doctor met all my 
interrogatories as to the character of the audience and the 
direction I should give my remarks, by suggesting a bottle 
of wine. I " wagoned" through the whole ordeal with a clear 
head and steady nerves, and at the appointed hour took the 
stand to talk to a crowd that seemed to extend in every di- 
rection as far as I could see. I spoke the time I had allotted 
for the task, and supposed that I had said about what I 
had intended to say, until the morning paper came out with 
a condensed report of my speech. I recognized the words 
"the," "and," "but," and several others I certainly had 
used, but beyond that I could not recognize anything. 
The next day the Virginia paper came to hand with its 



A DAY AT THE HOT SPRINGS. 279 

report of the speech, and it bore no similarity to the Helena 
report, and neither had a complete sentence I had uttered. 
Dr. Cass suggested that the reporters had run out of wine, 
and proposed a bottle to enable us to compare the reports 
carefully. With all his hospitality, he indulged as sparingly 
as I did myself, and neither of us was any the worse for 
the campaign. 

This is the first day of the trip I have had even an hour 
to myself; and I took advantage of it to rest at the cele- 
brated Hot Springs, about four miles from Helena. As 
ours was but a family party, Mrs. General Meagher accom- 
panied us. When first I saw her at a social gathering in 
Virginia, she was the queen of wit and beauty. To-day 
deep shadows dim the lustre of her eyes and sadly sober 
her natural sprightliness ; but in the midst of it all, 
widowed and alone in the mountains, she is as heroic in 
sorrow as she was devoted in brighter days. I had a de- 
lightful rest. Some six large springs rise here, ranging in 
temperature from cold to almost boiling heat, and all are 
strongly impregnated with sulphur and other minerals. 
Baths are so arranged that they can be tempered just as 
each bather prefers ; and a more refreshing, invigorating 
luxury I have not enjoyed for a long time. We were 
served with a dinner that would have been creditable at 
the Continental. Late in the afternoon the road from the 
city to the springs was lined with visitors of all classes. 
Social or smitten pairs from the elite of Helena were jostled 
on the way by the fast bloods from the mines, frail Cyprians 
galloped through all with the finest equipages on the road, 
and evening found a large crowd around us, representing 
almost every shade of virtue and vice. Part of the es- 
tablishment is devoted to the reputable, while the others — 
perhaps more welcome because more profitable — have their 
* parlor, where the fast gents and their partners toss their 



280 VIRTUE AND VICE. 

juleps and wine to strained wit and obscene jest. Here, 
in a little circle, is the Far West photographed from life, 
and each class is true to its profession. Crime comes not 
in fair disguise to mingle with and corrupt the fountains of 
virtue, as it does in fashionable resorts in the East, but, 
unmasked and with that deference that wrong ever yields 
to right, it sweeps along as if impatient to hasten the 
fullness of its sorrow and leave half its days unmeasured. 



<i 



LETTER XXIX. 

The Head of the Missouri Eiver. — A Beautiful Prospect. — The 
Clitf on which Lewis and Clarke first viewed and named the 
Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Eivers. — Navigation of tlip 
Upper Missouri. — From Gallatin to Hoggum. — The Missouri 
and Prickly Pear Valleys. — The Fertile Soil about Helena. — 
Helena City. — Its Rapid Growth. — Character of its People. — 
Its Rich Bars and Gulches. — Water-Ditches. — The Hangman's 
Tree.— James "W. Whitlach.— The Whitlach Union Mine.— 
The Reward of Earnest Development. 

Helena, Montana Terr., August 24, 1867. 
' I LEFT Gallatin City on Monday for another long drive 
to the chief city of the Territory, Before starting, I climbed 
a high bluff, of limestone formation, that towers up between 
the Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers, and had a magnificent 
view of the three rivers lazily streaming out of their re- 
spective valleys, while a few rods below their waters are 
united, and they are lost in the Missouri, as it passes off 
with fretful energy through a narrow caiion to the far 
north. As far as the eye can see, the Gallatin, Madison, 
and Jefferson Valleys present their green bottoms, luxu- 
riant fields, and countless herds of the finest cattle ; while 
the lines of the rivers and their numerous tributaries are 
distinctly marked by the dense growth of timber on their 
banks.' I was charmed with this beautiful prospect, and 
lingered more than an hour to enjoy its delightful contrast 
with the parched waste of the prairies distant from water. 
A little more than threescore years ago, Lewis and Clarke 
stood in the same place, and made the first record of the 

25 (281) 



282 NAVIGATION OF THE UPPER MISSOURI 

source of the great river of the West, and the three rivers 
above were then first named in honor of the eminent 
statesmen then President and Cabinet officers of the nation. 
Then the source of the Missouri was in what were re- 
garded as inaccessible wilds and wastes, where the home 
of the pale-faces would never be reared. To-day the most 
bountiful crops of the world are being gathered in the 
valleys of the Upper Missouri and its tributaries, and the 
vast plains are dotted with the ranches of the successful 
husbandman. But, rapid as has been the march of pro- 
gress here in the past, it is only in its infancy. It was not 
a mere feverish speculation that planted a city with sixty- 
four cabins at the head of the Missouri, a few years ago. 
True, it was a step in advance of progress itself, and the 
cabins have disappeared, with a solitary exception, to 
grace the farms in the neighborhood; but I doubt not that 
they will return in a few years, and to stay. The Mis- 
souri has been navigated and carefully explored from Gal- 
latin to the falls above Fort Benton, — a distance of two 
hundred miles by the course of the river, — and there are 
no obstructions whatever. An intelligent gentleman, who 
was with the exploring party last year, informed me 
that light boats can navigate the Missouri in the dryest 
season ; and one or two years at most will see a line of 
steamers plying from the Falls into the heart of the agri- 
cultural wealth of Montana. And, while the steamers 
will come up from the north, civilization will be extending 
from Bozeman City eastward into the Yellowstone, and 
the rich placers of the Yellowstone, Big Horn, Wind River, 
and Muscleshell will make a continued line of white su- 
premacy from the Mississippi to Puget Sound. The won- 
drously fruitful valleys will fully supply the miners, and 
the savage will recede or die before this " manifest des- 
tinv.'' 



FROM GALLATIN TO HOGGUM. 283 

From the head of the Missouri I started nearly west- 
ward along the banks of the Jefferson, but soon turned 
toward the north, across a gradual divide of fifteen miles. 
The day was warm, and fifteen miles of successive foot- 
hills, without water, tired both team and passengers. 
Finally we landed on Milton Creek, with clear, fresh 
water, and there we stopped to dine and rest. The inevi- 
table Missourian was our host, and his photograph-album 
was not singular in that region for commencing with Jeff. 
Davis, following with General Price, and ending with 
Wilkes Booth. We dined on our host's fresh vegetables 
and palatable bread and butter, rather than on his opinions, 
and got along very well. For more than twenty miles on 
this trip there was not a field to be seen ; but as we de- 
scended into Crow Creek Valley we found fruitful fields 
again. The valley is quite large and level, but is barely 
supplied with water, as Crow Creek seems to be its only 
source for irrigation, and that has been almost drained by 
the miners on the Missouri side of the bluff. It has an 
abundance of most nutritious grass, and many fine herds 
were grazing on it. From Crow Creek we had to cross 
another divide, nearly in an eastern direction, making a 
complete semicircle from Gallatin. Here for the first 
time I found the red shale, or slate, and on it a sickly 
growth of pines. Evening brought me to the eastern 
slope of the divide, and again I was on the banks of the 
Missouri. It is lined with contiguous farms, and the har- 
vests look excellent. As we passed down the stream, the 
bottom widened until it spread out a mile or more on each 
side,' with beautiful table-lands rising along the foot-hills. 
That night we were the guests of the city of Hoggum, 
a small, new mining-camp that was " hogged up" by a 
few miners, as is alleged, and thus it won its euphonious 
title. Some ten miles below is the celebrated Confederate 



284 THE FERTILE SOIL ABOUT HELENA. 

Gulch, the richest of the size ever discovered. Four men 
cleaned up and took away with them, last season, a ton of 
gold, the result of their own labor. Over $150,000 was 
cleaned up in it in two days, last year ; and it is still yield- 
ing very largely. Its name is a reflex of the convictions 
and sympathies of its discoverers. 

From Hoggum to this city is a clever day's drive over 
another divide between the Missouri and Prickly Pear 
Valleys ; and the country presents the parched and deso- 
late-looking aspect now to be seen everywhere in the 
absence of water. As we entered the Prickly Pear Val- 
ley, the Missouri hides itself behind a series of high foot- 
hills, and hugs the range closely as it toils on to the north, 
and the creek that bears the name of the valley winds 
around and finds a passage to the river through the canons 
which break the numerous ranges of bluffs. The valley is 
very beautiful, and quite productive, although hundreds of 
acres equally so still invite the ^settler within a mile of 
Helena. I presume there is not much difference between 
the altitude of Prickly Pear Valley and the Gallatin ; but 
the difference is probably in favor of the Gallatin, as vege- 
tation is here not quite so much advanced. It is, however, 
susceptible of cultivation generally, and will one day be 
all appropriated by the husbandman. The best-improved 
ranches (the invariable name for a farm in the Far West) 
I have seen in Montana are in this valley. A number 
rejoice in two-storied houses, — a rare evidence of progress 
in this country. 

Helena City nestles in between a network of mountain- 
cliffs on the southwest side of the valley, and, like all 
mining-camps, it started with two rows of cabins in the 
gulch, divided by a very narrow street. Its location is 
in Last Chance Gulch, — so called because an old miner 
and his son, after prospecting the whole season, tried this 



HELENA CITY. 285 

gulch as their last chance for "winter grub." It proved 
very rich; and soon after an adventurous prospecter 
pushed up the ravine beyond the pay-streak, and discov- 
ered another rich gulch. His first companion was a huge 
grizzly bear, which he shot and feasted thereon : hence 
the title of Grizzly Gulch above the city. Here is the 
most marked evidence of progress to be found in Montana. 
Virginia City has handled the forty or fifty millions of 
gold from Alder Gulch, and is sobering down with the 
ebbing tide into substantial, legitimate business ; but 
Helena has all the vim, recklessness, extravagance, and 
jolly progress of a new camp. It is but little over two 
years old, but it boasts of a population of seven thousand 
five hundred, and of more solid men, more capital, more 
handsome and well-filled stores, more fast boys and frail 
women, more substance and pretense, more virtue and vice, 
more preachers and groggeries, and more go-aheadative- 
ness generally, than any other city in the mountain mining- 
regions. It has gradually swelled beyond the narrow, 
crooked gulch to the table-lands ; and many beautiful cot- 
tages adorn its suburbs, but still guiltless of shade, or even 
of the attempt to grow trees. They have not time for that 
yet, although water is accessible ; and they jostle along 
against and over each other in the hurried race for fortune, 
leaving adornment for the future. The city is surrounded 
by gulches, all more or less rich in the precious metals, and 
two ditches have been made, the one five and the other fif- 
teen miles in length, to bring water to the bars and gulches 
in and about this place. One ditch carries one thousand 
inches of water, and the other five hundred; but so far 
they have not proved profitable to either owners or miners. 
The price charged for the water is so high that many of 
the flumes are idle. The only tree in the city is a short, 
thick pine, known as '' hangman's tree," on which many a 

25* 



286 MINERAL WEALTH AROUND HELENA. 

desperado has yielded his life to the terrible judgment of 
the Yigilanters. It has served its purpose, as the proper 
authorities are now supreme : its topmost branches are 
already dead, and it will soon live only in history. 

The wealth in precious metals in and around Helena is 
truly wonderful. There are hundreds of acres of bars 
below the city which will be worked profitably in time, 
as facilities increase and labor cheapens ; and five miles 
up the gulch I saw men hauling dirt from the hill-sides to 
the streams below, and washing out good wages. Here 
are certainly the most extensive bars yet known in Mon- 
tana ; and I share the conviction of the Helena people that 
the city must progress steadily, rather than recede. I had 
time to visit only two of the many leads near this place ; and, 
as one of them is the only one thoroughly developed in 
the Territory, I will be pardoned for singling it out in 
contrast with the stupid, suicidal policy of both owners 
and speculators, of whom I have spoken in previous letters. 
As the lead is not for sale, I feel warranted in using it to 
illustrate what judicious, legitimate effort will accomplish 
in Montana. It is owned by James W. Whitlach, who 
came to the mountain-mines some years ago from West- 
ern Pennsylvania without sufficient learning to enable him 
to read or write his name. After various smiles and frowns 
of fortune in California and Nevada, he came here and dis- 
covered the " Whitlach Union" lead. Instead of plung- 
ing it into speculation, he set about its development, with- 
out means, and he struggled on, sacrificing a large share 
of his profits for want of capital, but carefully putting 
every dollar realized into development, until he has taken 
out over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of bullion, 
a'ld has to-day five hundred thousand dollars within sight 
in his shafts and tunnels. His mine was not half so rich 
as many others on the surface, and at times I noticed that 



THE WniTLACn UNION MINE. 281 

it narrowed down to a mere seam between the walls ; but 
he persevered until he has it now completely opened, and 
will soon employ several mills in its reduction. Most of 
this valuable lead he owns exclusively, while some four 
hundred feet belongs to a mill-enterprise in which he is 
half-owner, giving half of the four hundred feet for half of 
a thirty-stamp mill erected and ready to run. After de- 
veloping his lead and thoroughly testing it, he can now 
command any amount of machinery on it, on profitable 
terms. His ores yield an average of about thirty dollars 
per ton. Eastern speculators will tell you of better mines 
than this one ; but practical miners who have proved the 
value of leads have few such stories to tell. Nineteen 
companies out of twenty, constituted as are most Eastern 
corporations, would have bankrupted themselves, where 
one persevering miner, without capital, has built up a 
colossal fortune, and one that seems illimitable. I would 
advise parties in the East, who contemplate embarking in 
mining-enterprises, to select one sensible business-man to 
visit and learn the lesson of the Whitlach mine before they 
buy their machinery. But few could fail if they would 
thus start right. 



LETTER XXX. 

The Trade and Prosperity of Helena. — The Immense Consumption 
of a Small Population. — Climbing the Eocky Range again. — 
The Mullen Wagon-Road and Old Indian Trail. — Magnificent 
Timber on the Northern Slopes of the Range. — Fine Blooded 
Cattle grazing on the Mountains. — Parting of the Waters. — 
Meadow Brook. — Brook-Trout. — A "Batch" Dinner. — Carpen- 
ter's Bar. — Blackfoot City. — Political Speaking. — Competition 
of the Gambling-Saloons and Bars. — Good Order preserved. — 
Democratic Meeting on Sunday. — The Salute to General Smith. 
— Judge Williston. 

Blackfoot, Montana Terr., August 26, 1867. 
I HAD a ^ood rest in Helena, the chief city of Montana, 
and enjoyed its liberal hospitality and jolly people after the 
weary rides and nightly speeches of the previous week. 
Helena is a specimen of a large mining city or camp. 
Everybody goes on the high-pressure principle, whether 
to a wedding, a political meeting, to church, to a frolic, to 
hang a man, or to a funeral. The people are not citizens in 
the usual acceptation of the term. They are residents, or 
sojourners, usually expecting to leave long before they do, 
and many will probably stay the remainder of their lives, 
confidently hoping to get away every spring and fall. Just 
now the city is crowded with goods. The trains have got 
in from the river, and the fresh supplies of merchantable 
commodities fill not only the many stores, but scores of 
fire-proof warehouses besides. The main street of Helena 
seems to have everything for sale you could find in Phila- 
delphia, although the prices vary somewhat from Eastern 
(288) 



CLIMBING THE ROCKY RANGE AGAIN. 289 

rates. It was to me a study, when in that city, how the 
people consumed the immense stores shipped to them 
annually. Montana has not over forty thousand popula- 
tion, and very many of them are poor, shifting from day 
to day for bread ; and yet the business-men of the Terri- 
tory paid out nearly a million of dollars this summer for 
freights alone. The agricultural valleys supply nearly 
if not quite all the flour consumed, and an abundance of 
potatoes, turnips, and many other vegetables : yet more 
than three millions a year are paid for dry goods, gro- 
ceries, provisions, vegetables, fruits, liquors, etc., by not 
more than forty thousand people, most of whom live in 
the rudest manner and spend little for finery. It proves 
simply that of all classes the miners are the most improvi- 
dent, and as a rule earn to-day and spend to-morrow, if in- 
deed they do not spend before they earn. Helena is now 
the great centre of trade for Montana, and the supplies 
are immense. Besides her retail trade, a large wholesale 
business is done by her merchants to the small retailers 
in the mining-camps and agricultural settlements. A very 
large capital is required to carry on business, as a whole 
year's supply of all articles must be purchased and shipped 
at one time. 

I left Helena on Saturday for this city, — a distance of 
thirty-five miles across the Rocky range. We crossed the 
Prickly Pear near the city, where it is lined with bountiful 
farms, and passed along the valley several miles before 
we commenced to climb the rugged foot-hills of the mount- 
ains, which throw out their huge spurs to the very edge 
of Helena. Soon we came to a canon, and swung off into 
it to commence the ascent of not less than three thousand 
feet. The road is over a succession of cliffs, which are 
thrown in the wildest confusion along and across the 
valley at every angle ; but it is amazing with what ease 



290 CATTLE GRAZING ON THE MOUNTAINS. 

comparatively the range can be crossed. For many miles 
the road follows an Indian trail, still distinctly visible, 
which has doubtless existed for centuries. The Indians 
come from the Pacific slopes to the East to hunt for buffalo, 
and have done so from time immemorial; and their trails 
are beaten in the earth often as much as a foot deep. Part 
of the Avay we were on the original Mullen wagon-road, 
which was located mainly by the Indian trail. For fifteen 
miles we had little else than bleak, sterile hills, with sidling 
roads and steep ascents and descents, and of course with- 
out the sight of cultivation. On either side high mount- 
ains encompassed us ; ahead of us was the Rocky range, 
and immediately around us were dozens of respectable 
mountains, while our road took us down one only to com- 
mence to climb another. On the north sides the mountains 
are all densely wooded, as the snow lies most of the year 
there and supplies moisture, while on all points exposed to 
the sun they are entirely bare of trees and have but little 
grass. In all this mountain-region I found the finest, 
fattest cattle, and in one of the ravines of the main range 
I met a thorough-bred short-horn bull quietly grazing on 
the sweet, tender grass of the forest. I walked leisurely 
up the range, and for the first time enjoyed a genuine, old- 
fashioned shade. The northeastern slope is covered with 
large, fine timber, — mostly yellow pine, but mingled with 
it is the white, and almost every variety of that wood. 
Here and there a quaking-asp (really a species of cotton- 
wood) varied the foliage ; but the thick, short, bushy pines 
were the monarchs of the mountain, and the thin air swept 
through their foliage with the mellowest music. I saw 
many yellow pines four feet across the stump, but they do 
not grow more than two-thirds the height of such trees on 
our Eastern hills. One venerable trunk, nearly the last on 
the summit, measured over fifteen feet in circumference. 



PARTING OF THE WATERS. 291 

Whenever we reached the top, not a tree or shrub was 
visible, excepting on the next range a little beyond, A 
clear, rippling spring starts down near the summit, and 
within gun-shot of it another starts down the western 
slope. Thus they rise but a few yards apart, and dash on 
to the Eastern and Western Seas. The western slope of 
the range is covered with sickly-looking grass ; but not a 
shrub rises to break the monotony of the scene until the 
foot is reached, when another range, nearly as high as the 
main one, presents its northwest forest of magnificent trees 
again. In the ravine. Meadow Brook sweeps down around 
the mountain, and seeks its grade to the Pacific ; but we 
had to climb again to reach our destination. Before doing 
so, however, we had an excellent dinner, prepared by a 
ranchman who "■ batches it," as they say out here when the 
house is without a landlady. There were plenty of beauti- 
ful brook-trout sporting in the stream, but we had not time 
to catch them and wait to have them cooked. After dinner 
we passed slowly up the second range, through splendid 
timber, and fanned by refreshing mountain-breezes as they 
sighed through the dense pines. When we reached the 
summit again, the same barrenness suddenly began, and 
not a tree of any size graced the southwestern slopes. We 
landed at its foot in an extensive mining-region, known as 
Carpenter's Bar, where not less than one hundred acres 
have been worked by hydraulic process, besides the gulch, 
and very profitable returns realized. After crossing an- 
other divide, we landed in this city, which consists of two 
rows of cabins about forty rods in length, and a street 
betweeni them. It has a temporary appearance, as it is 
supported solely by placer-miners, whose business may 
"play out" any time. Half the cabins are groggeries, 
about one-fifth are gambling-saloons, and a large percent- 
age are occupied by the fair but frail ones who ever follow 



292 POLITICAL SPEAKING. 

the miner's camp. One hotel consisted of a restaurant and 
bar on the first floor, and berths up-stairs for lodgers. 
One little corner was partitioned off with rough boards, to 
accommodate the few ladies who chance to travel this way. 
The people are intelligent and clever, and reasonably good 
order is maintained. 

I was placarded to speak Saturday evening ; and, as 
most of the miners gather in at the close of the week for 
their Sunday sports, I had a very large audience. Balls 
soaked in kerosene were suspended from a post, which 
brilliantly illuminated the crowd and streets. I stood on 
a box in front of the hotel, with a bar doing a brisk busi- 
ness just behind me. Immediately on my left, with double 
doors and windows open, was a gambling-saloon in full 
blast, with a faro-bank, three or four poker-tables, a bil- 
liard-table, and a bar, all liberally patronized. On my 
right was an open front with a decorated bar, attended by 
several brilliantly-painted bar-keepers of the female persua- 
sion ; and next to that was another gambling-saloon. For- 
tunately, there were enough people to supply all with 
patrons and leave me a large audience to talk to; but, 
while I cannot complain of the attention, I noticed fre- 
quent surges from the crowd to the saloons, — particularly 
when the dealer on my left (who was not ten yards from 
me) would call out, loud enough to drown my voice, 
''Single turn, gents ! who'll call the turn ?" Away would 
sweep a share of my hearers, and in a little while they 
would gather back again, — most of them, I doubt not, 
sadder men than before. With all the whisky poured 
down, the audience was remarkable for its order. One en- 
thusiastic disciple of Democracy came staggering out of a 
groggery and greeted me with, "Dry up, old (hie) blos- 
som-top !" but he reeled off and left me to do the remainder 
of the speaking. I need hardly say, after the description 



DEMOCRATIC MEETING ON SUNDAY. 293 

I have given of the place, that it will be likely to give a 
Democratic majority on Monday next. 

Sunday is the great da}^ here, as in most mining-camps, 
for public meetings and amusements. To the credit of 
the Republicans be it said, they refused to hold political 
meetings on Sunday. The Democrats, however, held their 
great meetings on that day throughout the Territory. Mr. 
Cavanaugh, Democratic candidate for Congress, followed 
me at Bozeman on Sunday, and a leading Democratic can- 
didate preceded me at Hoggum on Sunday. Governor 
Green Clay Smith followed me here last night (Sunday) ; 
and I notice that the Democracy are to close the campaign 
with a grand mass-meeting in Yirginia City next Sunday 
evening. Governor Smith arrived yesterday from Helena, 
where he had started in to follow me around to Yirginia. 
As there are no churches, school-houses, or other decent 
places of public resort, and no place to read even, every- 
body was lounging around ; and when his excellency en- 
tered the city a salute was fired from two anvils, much to 
the amusement of the few boys and to the consternation of 
the many dogs. In the evening he spoke in behalf of the 
Democracy, to a large audience ; and the side amusements 
which divided my hearers from me seemed to reap a 
richer harvest than the evening before. 

My old friend Judge Williston had met me at Helena, 
accompanied me here, and will go with me to Deer Lodge, 
where he resides. He is as fastidious, foppish, and genial 
as ever, but complains that somebody will persist in stain- 
ing his coat and shirt with tobacco, and that Western 
washwomen glory in tearing buttons off one's clothes. He 
is confessedly an able and upright judge, and commands, 
as he deserves, the unbounded confidence of the people for 
his ability and integrity. We leave Blackfoot for Deer 
Lodge to-day, and without serious regrets. 



LETTER XXXI. 

The Forests of the Rocky Eange on Mullen's Pass. — The Mount- 
ains on Fire. — Deer Lodge Valley. — Its Mining-Districts. — 
Promising Gold and Silver Leads. — Exorbitant Prices named 
in Bonds to Middle-Men. — Legitimate Mining. — Failure almost 
invariably due to Mismanagement. — Deer Lodge City. — Its 
Beautiful Streams and Vast Herds. — Its G-reat Mineral Spring. 
— Agricultural Settlements of Montana. — The Missoula Valley. 
—Growth of Fruit. 

Deer Lodge City, Montana Terr., August 28, 1867. 
I LEFT Helena on Saturday morning to fill an appoint- 
ment at Blaekfoot that evening, and had a pleasant trip 
over the Rocky range and its numerous spurs. The ascent 
of the range really commences at Helena ; for the foot-hills 
surround the city on three sides. An old Indian trail, 
that has been traveled for centuries by the Indians of the 
w^estern slopes in search of the buffalo of the plains, 
located the road most of the way, and Captain Mullen's 
wagon-road follows it until the range is crossed. The 
rapid succession of bare bluifs over which I climbed pre- 
sented nothing novel until the base of the main range was 
reached, when I found thousands of acres of the finest 
timber shading the mountains with the darkest green. On 
every angle of the confused network of mountains, where 
the sun had not easy access, the growth of timber is mag- 
nificent, large yellow and white pines, measuring from three 
to four feet in diameter. But on the slopes exposed to the 
sun there was not so much as a shrub to be seen, unless 
(294) 



THE MOUNTAINS ON FIRE. 295 

by the side of some little brook. Where the snow lies 
most of the year, moisture is supplied to sustain a boun- 
tiful crop of timber ; but not a tree can grow on the sunny 
sides. Crossing the range from the northeast, it presented 
the appearance of our beautiful Alleghanies. The forest 
was as dense as any Pennsylvania could produce, the ten- 
derest of grass covered the earth beneath the plaintive 
whispers of the majestic pines, and herds of splendid cattle 
quietly grazed on its sweet and nutritious herbage. On the 
summit the timber ends abruptly, and with a regular line 
that looks as if it had been planted ; while on the top, and 
down the Pacific slope, nothing but the usual growth of 
parched and withered grass meets the eye. Two springs 
rise within a few feet of each other, and dash off toward 
the rising and the setting sun to the far -distant seas. 
At the foot of the range I left the old trail and Mullen 
,Road, which flanks the next range by "the Frenchwoman's 
Ranch," and had to climb another range but little less 
than the main one. The magnificent view of the mount- 
ains was greatly lessened by the dense volumes of smoke 
which filled the atmosphere. Not less than five thousand 
acres of the range seemed to be enveloped in fire ; and on 
far-distant ranges I could see that the angry element was 
doing its work of destruction on ever}^ side. The second 
range could scarcely be distinguished from the Rocky 
range in crossing it. The same beautiful timber, fresh, 
tender grass, and familiar herds were found on the north- 
ern exposure; the south and west being bare and deso- 
late. At the foot the mining-camps appeared. Carpen- 
ter's Bar, with its hundred acres or more, washed down 
by hydraulics, and a gulch turned over for miles, with a 
little town crowded along the narrow passage on one side, 
gave evidences that the main harvest of gold had been 
gathered, and that but few of the less fortunate operators 



296 THE MINES IN DEER LODGE COUNTY. 

remained. Hence over another divide lies Blackfoot City, 
a brisk mining-camp, in which much has been done, and 
much more remains to be done. It is the beginning of a 
series of camps in Deer Lodge county, and for many miles 
west and south is dotted with swarms of miners, who 
are well repaid for their labors. Just now the attention 
of business-men is directed to this section. Its placer 
mines have been worked for several years; but its leads 
are the newest in the Territory, and the surface-indications 
are the best ever discovered in the mountains. They are 
not yet ''proven up," as the miners say, and they may not 
sustain the surface-richness when they are properly de- 
veloped ; but the top-rock of these mines is truly wonder- 
ful. Flint Creek district abounds in silver-leads, and they 
are unusually alike in the width of the crevices and the 
yield per ton. It is believed by those who have spent this 
season in that district, including many scientific and prac- 
tical men, that it will surpass any silver-region yet dis- 
covered. Several furnaces are in course of erection, and 
this winter will begin systematic developments. Within 
twelve miles of the silver-mines a monster gold-lead has 
been discovered, — the widest, I believe, found in the Terri- 
tory, — and it prospects very handsomely. Silver Bow, east 
of this city, has produced a very large return of gold ; and 
Butte City, Highland, and many other districts have dis- 
covered what seem to be most valuable leads. Some of 
them range from five to twenty-five feet in width; and 
from the decayed surface -rock good wages have been 
made by panning out the gold. In Butte City, valuable 
copper-mines are found, yielding as high as forty per cent, 
of copper, and some silver and gold beside. Of these leads 
I can express no opinion, beyond saying that they are well 
worthy the attention of capitalists. It should not be as- 
sumed that they are to continue indefinitely as fruitful as 



LEGITIMATE MINING. 29t 

their surface-ores indicate, and it would be folly to pur- 
chase and erect mills or furnaces on them before they are 
fully proven; but they are well worth the most thorough 
development, and most of them could be secured by capi- 
talists for little outlay beyond opening them properly, by 
dividing the ownership with the miners. I learn that one 
of these leads has been bonded to a " middle-man" at 
$1,300,000, and it is probably now in the Eastern market 
with the bonds to show the price at which it is held. It 
may be worth $13,000,000 instead of $1,300,000; but one- 
twentieth the bonded price would buy any of these unde- 
veloped mines, and then it would be unwise to erect 
machinery on them until they have been opened to well- 
defined and permanent leads. Every indication is favor- 
able about these leads, and I would urge capitalists to 
possess them and develop them judiciously; but let not 
'the stupendous monuments of folly which now make Co- 
lorado desolate and sickening be repeated here. I regard 
legitimate mining in Montana as the safest and most pro- 
fitable investment men can make in any enterprise; but 
I have striven faithfully, through these pages, to save 
capitalists and Montana from common misfortune. An 
association that will devote a year to the development of 
these new mines, which promise so handsomely, could 
devote the second year to the erection of machinery that 
would return colossal fortunes ; while nine out of ten of 
the hap-hazard companies which ship mills and then hunt 
for mines would fail in the same districts. I have now 
been through the leading mining-districts of the Territory, 
and I have found no failure in quartz mining that could 
not trace disaster to the stupidity of owners or directors. 
I have not found an idle or unsuccessful mill that has not 
an abundance of first-class quartz somewhere about it. A 
few mills have been sent here to run on ores from a single 

26* 



298 DEER LODGE CITY. 

undeveloped lead, and with its failure the company fails; 
and but few, after one disaster, will invest in new leads, 
lest they double their loss. Let me here repeat, as a rule 
from which there can be no departure with safety, that no 
mine wants a mill for a year after its systematic develop- 
ment is commenced. A few thousand dollars will answer 
to open a lead; and, if it "bilks," the loss is not serious, 
and others can be secured and proven. 

Deer Lodge City is a little village of probably two hun- 
dred inhabitants, situated on the river of the same name, 
and nearly central in the most picturesque and beautiful 
valley I have seen in Montana. There are no mining- 
camps within ten miles of the town, and it wears the quiet, 
sober air of an agricultural community. The valley is the 
largest in the Territory, and is very well watered. Numer- 
ous clear mountain-streams sweep into it from the west, 
and thousands of cattle graze on its bountiful growth of 
grass. On the west, the Bitter Root range walls the 
valley in from Idaho, and its spurs are thrown out like 
huge steps to the edge of the prairie. On the east, the 
Rocky range divides it from the Jeiferson ; and between 
them the valley extends from five to twenty miles in width, 
and fully fifty miles in length. As yet it is not exten- 
sively cultivated ; but occasional fields prove that it is 
capable of growing grain and vegetables in vast crops. 
Stock-growing seems to be the principal effort of the ranch- 
men ; but it is destined to be a great agricultural valley. 
Its name is derived from a peculiar hot mineral spring 
that rises near the centre of the valley. The mineral sub- 
stance in the water has incrusted about the spring until it 
has reared a mound thirty feet high, and one hundred feet 
in diameter at the base. On the top of the mound the 
water rises up to the surface in a strong volume, but does 
not overflow. It runs off through passages in the mound, 



AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENTS OF MONTANA. 299 

and rises again in different places at its base. I spent an 
hour in the examination of this curious structure, fashioned 
by the ceaseless efforts of the water, and left it with re- 
luctance. In the mornings, and during all the time in 
winter, a mist or fog rises from the water at the base of 
the hill, in the shape of a large Indian lodge or tent. 
As it was a favorite resort for the numerous deer be- 
fore the settlers drove them to the mountains, the In- 
dians named the place Deer Lodge: whence the name 
of the valley and county. Game is still abundant in the 
hills which skirt the valley. I saw a yearling elk and a 
moose calf grazing about the city, both perfectly tame. 
The moose is most suspicious of men, and inhabits the 
more remote ranges ; but the elk and deer still come to the 
outskirts of the settlements, and grace the boards of the 
ranchmen most of the year with their savory steaks. 

Of the agricultural settlements of Montana, the Gallatin 
and Missoula Valleys are the most favored in climate, — 
the eastern and western extremes of the Territory. I 
learn that the Missoula grows the earliest and finest vege- 
tables raised in the mountains, although it is the least 
accessible of all the agricultural districts as yet. It is the 
northwestern county of the Territory, and is flanked by 
the Bitter Root range. So favorable has the climate been 
since the settlers have been there, that the more hardy 
fruits are planted, with entire confidence that they can be 
grown successfully.* The whole Territory is made up of 
alternate mountains and valleys, — the one studded with 
the precious metals, and the other teeming with the most 
bountiful crops I have ever seen. In four years, with 



* I noticed, in the Helena papers, that several wagon-loads of 
excellent apples, grown in Missoula Valley, were sold in Helena 
in the fall of 1868. 



300 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF MONTANA. 

trackless mountains and hostile savages to confront the 
pioneer, this Territory has been settled for nearly two 
hundred miles in every direction from Helena, the cen- 
tral city, and, with not over forty thousand people, it is 
second only to California in the production of gold and 
silver, and rivals that State in the growth of wheat to the 
acre. It has been cursed with adventurers in both busi- 
ness and politics, as has been the experience of all new 
Territories ; but its future will make romance pale before 
the swift march of progress. 



LETTER XXXII. 

Sunday in Blackfoot. — A Pet Dog stolen. — A Bucking Kiyuse. — 
Western Riders. — How they saddle and bridle Western Ponies. 
— Conquering the Kiyuse. — Judge Williston. — Deer Lodge 
City. — Game in the Valley. — Crossing the Rocky Range again 
at Big Hole Pass. — The Gradual Ascent from the West. — 
Another Batch Dinner. — The Batch's Pets. — Divide Creek. — 
Its Waters coursing to both Oceans. — Fourth Crossing of the 
Rocky Range. — Big Hole Valley. — Hospitality of Moose Creek. 
—A Delightful Supper.— A Bed of Doubtful Color.— A Struggle 
with Bedbugs. — A Loquacious Landlady. — Her Untidiness. — 
Her Conflicts with the Bugs. — A Dubious Breakfast. — Two 

. Thousand Miles of Pleasant Staging in the Mountains. 

Moose Creek, Montana Terr., August 28, 1867. 

I LEFT the famous city of Blackfoot with few regrets. 
A Sunday there is anything* but pleasant to one who don't 
gamble, race horses, or buy at street-auctions. A sprightly 
terrier, added to our family by the kindness of a friend 
in Helena, was stolen and corraled under a sofa, and, 
although my landlord was in the house in search of the 
missing dog, the damsels who had committed the theft 
denied having any knowledge of her whereabouts. After 
we- left he returned and captured the stolen property, and 
Governor Smith, who followed me all around, restored 
the drog at Deer Lodge, where we closed our campaign. 

As if some devilish infection pervaded the atmosphere 
of Blackfoot, one of our horses (a kiyuse, or native pony) 
took a fit of '* bucking" soon after we left, and was par- 
ticular to select the most dangerous portions of the road 

(301) 



302 WESTERN RIDING. 

for the displa}^ of his skill in that line. The native horses 
become singularly skilled in "backing," and there are few 
riders who can keep the saddle or make them yield to the 
lines when they resort to their favorite amusement. 
Twice our kiyuse broke nearly out of the harness, but, 
after persuading him gently with a stout club dropped 
over his head, he finally concluded to take us along peace- 
ably. Eastern riders know little of Western horseman- 
ship. The kiyuse is never perfectly tamed, and he is 
always rode or driven so as to exercise all possible con- 
trol over him. I have not seen an Eastern saddle or girth 
in the mountains. The army saddle, or a pattern much 
like it, is in universal use, and a broad hair band, with a 
ring in each end, serves for a girth. No buckles are used 
in fastening the saddle. It is set back clear of the shoul- 
ders, and the band strapped as tightly as possible over 
the belly, so as to completely clear the lungs. Then a 
sharp curb and a hair rein complete the outfit. The 
Western man always rides at a lope, and sometimes at a 
gallop, and when his pony is worn down he is turned out 
to grass, and a fresh one brought in, who usually "bucks" 
vigorously when he is called into service. They will 
plant their heads down between their front feet, and rear 
and kick, keeping the head down, until they unhorse the 
rider or are flogged into submission. The usual way to 
start them is for the rider to mount firmly and ply the 
spurs (with rowels never less than an inch in diameter, 
and I have seen them as much as three inches), and a 
friend stands behind and plies the raw-hide whip. Finally 
the kiyuse gives it up, and with a fearful bound he will 
break off at full speed; but he is allowed to indulge that 
fancy, and is even aided by vigorous spurring. Then 
he is safe until he is turned out again, when the same 
struggle is gone over, with the same result. 



DEER LODGE CITY. 303 

There is nothing remarkable in the journey from Black- 
foot to the Deer Lodge Valley, beyond the usual confused 
spurs of the Rocky Mountains over which we passed ; 
but when we entered the valley it presented a most beau- 
tiful appearance. But little farming is done ; but the 
cattle which swarm on the green bottoms are the finest I 
have met in all my journey. Their stock is better bred 
than are our own cattle in Pennsylvania, and they seem 
to thrive much better here than in our luxuriant clover in 
the East. At Deer Lodge City, the central village and 
county town of the valley, we became the guests of Judge 
Williston, who had met us at Helena; and I could not 
resist the inclination to spend an odd day with him to 
talk up the last several years. The city is pleasantly laid 
out, compared with the mining-towns, as the street is wide 
and kept in tolerable order. Although no mining is done 
nearer than a dozen miles, a large trade is carried on with 
the different camps. I found a young moose calf grazing 
along the river-bank ; and when it saw me it ran up to me 
and manifested its friendly intentions by the most plain- 
tive bleating. Its face looked as if Old Melancholy had 
fashioned it for a model of itself, but it was cheerful and 
even jolly as it nipped the buds and leaves from the bushes. 
They have been very plenty in Deer Lodge ; but as the 
valley has become settled the moose has receded to the 
mountains. On the commons near the village a yearling 
elk was browsing, and I paid his majesty a visit. His 
bright eyes, neat limbs, and quick, graceful movements 
contrasted most favorably with the awkward step and 
stupid, homely face of the moose ; but in his normal con- 
dition the moose is the most valiant of all the wild game, 
and is not a pleasant foe to encounter nearer than rifle- 
range. One hunter informed me that he killed one last 
year that weighed over seven hundred pounds dressed. 



304 DIVIDE CREEK. 

From Deer Lodge we had a pleasant journey to this 
place, a distance of sixty miles. We made it in a day 
with a single span of mules and four passengers, and 
crossed the Rocky range. Strange to say, this place 
has not been dubbed a city, although it has a large pole 
cabin, extensive stabling, two farm-wagons, several hay- 
stacks, and a trout-stream that comes down from the bluffs 
to swell the boisterous current of Big Hole River. The 
ascent to the summit is very gradual from Deer Lodge, 
and, without appreciating the fact that you are crossing 
the great backbone of the mountains, you find yourself 
on the top, and can look east and west for miles at the 
beautiful valleys below. We dined near Silver Bow, with 
a Canadian Frenchman who was "batching;" and we could 
not complain of his table. Like all frosted bachelors and 
damsels, he had a fine assortment of spoiled pets, for the 
want of something better on which to lavish his affections ; 
and my chief trouble was to keep his pet cat out of my 
plate while I was dining. When we reached the summit 
of the range, we found the waters of Divide Creek, which 
rises in a cliff to the south, contributing most equally to 
the Eastern and Western seas. Naturally it courses to the 
Missouri ; but there are rich bars of gold deposits six miles 
west without water, and the miners have made a ditch 
from the summit to the bars, and turned all the water, not 
already appropriated otherwise, to the Pacific slopes. It 
gushes out of the mountain-rocks and dashes down the 
prairie summit, where it strikes the dividing ridge, and 
thence half of it turns off in fretful murmurs to the set- 
ting sun. For the fourth time I stood on the summit of 
the Rocky range to-day, and, although I have been climl> 
ing mountains for seventeen hundred miles since June 
last, I have never yet wearied of their varied beauty and 
impressive grandeur. 



A BED OF DOUBTFUL COLOR. 305 

From the summit we had a rapid descent into Big Hole 
Valley, — so called because of the rapid current and uneven 
bed of the river that sweeps through it close by the mount- 
ain-spur that bounds the prairie on the south. Hundreds 
of cattle were grazing all along the eastern slope and 
down in the valley; but I saw no signs of the husbandman. 
In a little while we parted with the river as it turned off into 
a deep, narrow canon, and we climbed a steep divide, at 
the foot of which is Moose Creek. 

Having traveled sixty miles with a light team, a heavy 
load, and a hot sun, we were glad to stop for the night, 
and we all felt that our lots had been cast in a pleasant 
place as we sat down to a dish of trout just taken from 
the brook. True, things did not look as clean as I have 
seen them ; but we were tired and hungry, and did not in- 
spect them too closely. The house being crowded, my 
.couch was made up on the earthen floor in the kitchen, and 
consisted of a bed filled with musty hay, and I lost several 
hours of sleep trying to conclude what color the ticking 
had been when it was clean. The landlord and landlady 
had their bed in the opposite corner, and the children were 
piled in around the cook-stove as circumstances would 
allow. During the night I had more than visions of in- 
numerable companions in bed, with savage appetites and 
unpleasant habits of locomotion. To struggle with them 
was vain, and I bore their fellowship with all the philoso- 
phy I could command. Weary nature gave me some 
sleep in spite of bedbugs ; and when I awoke in the 
morning the landlady w^as making up the biscuits for 
breakfast. As soon as she saw I was awake, she dis- 
played the proverbial sociability of Western people by en- 
tering into a spirited conversation, made up mainly of 
interrogatories on her part and monosyllables on mine. As 
I was lying on the floor, I had a good view of her feet, 

2t 



306 TWO THOUSAND RIFLES OF STAGING. 

and, after mature reflection, decided that she had not washed 
them since spring, if even then; and, if they were to be 
cleaned up for winter, I concluded that nothing short of a 
grindstone run by water-power would scour them white. 
'' Bedbugs are aw-ful critters," said she, as she jammed 
another biscuit into the pan. " They do beat me, all I 
can do, here ; I hain't no beds put up in the house, jist for 
that," she added. The table-cloth was hanging over a 
chair that stood between us, and just then she made a 
brilliant dash at it with her doughy fingers, captured two 
bugs on their morning stroll, and flung them into the 
stove. '* They do be aw-ful," she continued, as she plunged 
into the dough again and hurried up the breakfast. In a 
little while I decided that the less I saw of the baking and 
cooking the more I would relish my breakfast ; and, in the 
midst of a running conversation with my sociable and 
genial hostess, I made a hurried toilet and took a walk to 
fortify myself for the coming meal. But my fastidious 
appetite got the better of me ; and beyond a cup of miser- 
able coffee and a slice of stale bread I had not seen made 
up, I could not indulge. Some of the guests enjoyed the 
smoking biscuits ; but I concluded that they had not seen 
them baked, as I did. 

We have now fifty-five miles to Virginia City, when we 
shall have made a circuit of four hundred miles through 
the main valleys and mines of Montana, and traveled two 
thousand by stage since we left the railroad at Platte City 
in Nebraska, — all but three hundred miles of it through 
the Rocky Mountains. So far, we have had but one inno- 
cent upset (on the Wasatch range), and no other accident 
of any kind. We have all steadily improved in health, 
and unite in our tribute to the fine, invigorating climate, 
sweet waters, and unafi*ected hospitality we have found in 
the Far West. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

Deer Lodge Kiver and its Tributaries. — Highland and Butte City 
Mining-Districts. — Marvelous Yield of Ores. — Big Hole Yal- 
ley.— Beaver-Head Kiver and Valley. — Ravages of the Grass- 
hoppers. — Stinking Water Valley and its Fine Improvements.— 
Lorrain's Ranch. — His History. — A Settler for a Quarter of a 
Century. — His Brides. — His Last Best Gift, and how he got her, 
— His Vast Possessions. — Romantic Fishing-Parties. — Pleasant 
Rides over the Prairie. — Alder Gulch and its Wealth. 

LoREAiN, Montana Terr., August 29, 1867. 
From Deer Lodge City to the summit of the Rocky 
range is a gradual ascent for nearly forty miles, — so grad- 
ual, indeed, that the top is reached without any of the 
abrupt hills and deep chasms so common in climbing the 
mountains. For about twenty-five miles the road follows 
Deer Lodge River, crossing numerous clear mountain- 
streams which enter it from the west, and traversing the 
most beautiful valley I have found in the Territory. Its 
altitude is greater than that of the Gallatin or the Jeffer- 
son, and agriculture is not so generally prosecuted ; but the 
largest herds of the finest cattle dot the prairie in every di- 
rection. No sign of mining is seen on the route until Silver 
Bow Creek is reached, when the murky waters tell that it is 
employed to aid the miners to produce the precious metals. 
The creek winds off from the road through a short canon 
to the city of Silver Bow, nestling behind an abrupt cliff, 
and, as I passed up the last hill of the range, I found 
placer-mines being worked in a large bar on one of the 
benches of the summit. A creek, that rises in a bluff south 



308 HIGHLAND AND BUTTE CITY 3IINING. 

of the road on the mountain-top, has been turned from the 
eastern seas to wash the placers of the Pacific slope and 
then find its way to the ocean with the setting sun. It is 
carried in a ditch for some six miles, where it gurgles 
through the sluices, and lodges the gold in various traps, 
as it can-ies with it the earth shorn of its precious deposits. 
In the Silver Bow district the gold is mixed more or less 
with silver : hence its name. 

From the summit I could see, off to the northeast, a 
road, winding up over a steep bluff, apparently leading to 
the high mountain-cliffs which lie beyond ; but it plunges 
into another mining-district, hidden among the broken 
sweep of ranges. Highland, with its new leads of mar- 
velous width, filled, as far as developed, with decayed 
quartz, is there; but no mills have yet ventured to try the 
new district. Several arastras are in operation, and very 
satisfactory results have been obtained. Still farther to the 
northeast lies Butte City, almost shadowed from sunlight 
b}^ the towering mountains, and, with silver and gold, rich 
copper-veins are there found. A trial of some of the Butte 
City ores, in a smelting-furnace, turned out fifty per cent, of 
metal, and the metal assayed three hundred and ninety dol- 
lars of silver and gold to the ton, — the rest being copper. I 
saw four assays made from the same metal, and they did 
not vary materially. The ore was selected, of course, and I 
do not pretend to say that the mines there will yield any- 
thing like such results ; but I mention the trial to show 
the various combinations of metals Montana produces. If 
one-tenth such results can be obtained from leads which 
have an abundant supply of ore, they will be worked with 
great profit. Neither Highland nor Butte City leads have 
been tested with any degTee of thoroughness ; but their 
surface-indications are most flattering. 

From the summit we had a short drive down to Moose 



BEAVER-HEAD RIVER AND VALLEY. 309 

Creek, where I was glad to rest after a drive of sixty miles 
over the Kocky range with a light mule-team and a heavy 
load. From the summit, east, the road flanks Big Hole 
River, a rapid stream that dashes through canons and 
over little plains for nearly thirty miles before it gets away 
from the mountains. Owing to the rapid fall, and the con- 
sequent swiftness of the current, its bed is washed in large 
holes, from which it derives its name. Finally it turns 
abruptly to the northeast, and crosses Big Hole Yalley on 
its way to join the Jefferson. The valley is small, and 
covered with excellent pasturage, but I noticed no farming 
of any account. I crossed the river on a substantial bridge, 
and hundreds of wild ducks were sporting on the water as 
I passed, while in the clear, deep stream an abundance of 
large fish tempted the angler. From the Big Hole the road 
crosses a level plain five miles in width, when the Beaver- 
Head River is reached. It comes out from the mountains 
in nearly a due northern line, and takes its name from a 
rock that adorns one of the cliffs near its source, shaped 
like a beaver's head. I dined on the river-bank, and found 
it uncomfortably hot. We had descended so rapidly from 
the summit that in twenty miles we were on a lower alti- 
tude than the Deer Lodge Yalley, and bountiful crops of 
vegetables were on the river-bottom ; but the grasshoppers 
had appropriated every blade and stock of grain. From 
the Beaver-Head I took the southern road, between the 
Stinking Water and the mountains, and had a continuous 
and splendid view of the Stinking Water Yalley, — one of 
the most fruitful, in proportion to its size, in the Territory. 
Here; and in the little valleys running southward between 
the mountain-spurs, are the finest retreats for cattle in the 
winter ; and it is not uncommon to turn out poor oxen in 
the fall, leave them to feed themselves, and bring them 
back in the spring in excellent order for the butcher's stall, 

27* 



310 LORRAIN'S RANCH. 

The improvements in this valley are the best I have found 
in Montana. Good stables are erected on almost every 
ranch, and the houses have an air of neatness and comfort 
not usual in the new settlements. Among them I noticed 
several two-storied frame building's, and luxuriant gardens 
around them ; but no attempt has been made to grow shade- 
or fruit-trees. It is probable that fruit-trees would not 
stand the weather ; but the cottonwood, if properly planted 
and watered, would give a pleasant shade in a very few 
years. As all the farms are on the river-bottom, none of 
them have good water. The wells on the river-bank are 
all more or less brackish as soon as the snow-water has 
passed off, and there are very few springs. Latterly, the 
settlers are beginning to renew their improvements on the 
beautiful table-lands which come close to the river, and 
there they find excellent water by digging from twenty to 
thirty feet. I saw but one spring in a distance of twenty 
miles, and it threw out a volume of water more than a foot 
in diameter. 

About sunset I crossed the Stinking Water at this place, 
and found pleasant quarters for the night. It is known as 
'' Ten Mile Creek," and as '' Lorrain's Ranch," as it is 
called, ten miles from Virginia City, and is owned by a 
Canadian Frenchman by the name of Lorrain. He is an 
old mountaineer, although still on the sunny side of fifty, 
and kicks the beam at two hundred and fifty pounds avoir- 
dupois, while his wife follows the fashion of her lord, and 
even excels him a few pounds in the race for the domestic 
heavy-weights. He was one of the early settlers, or 
rather wanderers, in Montana. Twenty-five years ago he 
commenced trading here with the Indians, and has followed 
it until now. His usual course in his trading operations 
was from Fort Benton by Deer Lodge, through to Bridger, 
and around hj the Yellowstone. Thus for a quarter of a 



LORRAIN'S VAST POSSESSIONS. 311 

century he has inhabited this desolate mountain-region 
along with Bridger and others ; and it is his crowning 
grief now that civilization has usurped the channels of 
trade and is likely soon to have railroads through his favor- 
ite trails. He has been blessed in his family, and in bas- 
ket and store. Until a few years ago he chose his tender 
partners from the dusky maidens of the forest, changing 
them at pleasure, according to the ceremonies of the tribes j 
'but in 1864 the noble red men widowed a woman on the 
plains by butchering and scalping her husband, while she 
was miraculously saved, and my fat and jolly host healed 
the wounded heart by making her his lawful wife and dis- 
carding all entangling alliances with his Hiawathas. No 
children bless the new alliance ; but I noticed half a dozen 
little half-breeds at their antics in and about the house. To 
whom they belong I know not ; but they broke bread from 
- the same loaf with us. 

Mr. Lorrain is but one of a number of Canadian French- 
men who have peopled this country for twenty-five years, 
trading with the Indians ; but of all of them he has most 
prospered. Although unable to make an entry in his own 
books, he is estimated to be worth $500,000. He digs no 
gold, and would not give a " kiyuse" for the best gold-lead 
in the Territory to work it. His forte is to traffic with 
everybody ; and the result is that he owns all the stores, 
bridges, and most of the ranches, cattle, horses, and mules, 
for fifty or one hundred miles along the valley. The Big 
Hole bridge alone yields him eight thousand dollars a year 
in gold. He owns the finest winter pastures, and each fall 
he exchanges sound and fat oxen, horses, and mules with 
those unluck}^ enough to have broken-down animals, and 
by spring they are restored, and ready to be jockeyed off 
again for two or three times their number of cripples. His 
herds are scattered over the Beaver-Head, Stinking Water, 



312 PLEASANT RIDES OVER THE PRAIRIE. 

Big Hole, and Deer Lodge valleys ; and his stores are 
found in every settlement, with their supplies of canned 
fruits and vegetables, groceries, a few dry goods, a profu 
sion of prepared cocktails, bitters, etc., and every variety 
of robes and skins. He lives in modern style since his 
white wife has shared his fortune, and would be a con- 
tented man but for the inexorable march of progress to 
found new empires in the Great West. A few yards above 
his house. Alder Gulch joins the Stinking Water, with its 
muddy waters from the flumes and sluices of the miners ; 
but above the confluence of the streams the Stinking 
Water is clear, and densely peopled with the finny tribe. 
Here come romantic anglers and maidens from the city 
to tell love's tender story and whisper sweet nothings 
among the bushes, as they tantalize the jolly trout with 
their awkwardness. They mount fleet horses and gallop 
over the smooth prairie roads, as if the race was for the 
capture of partners, as in olden times. It is but a pleasant 
after-tea ride to sweep over twenty miles; and horses and 
riders seem to be invigorated rather than wearied by the 
exercise. Between this place and Yirginia there is a suc- 
cession of rolling hills, and the ranches and fields turn 
southward into the numerous valleys. The road to the 
city follows the course and grade of Alder Gulch, and 
there are few habitations until the miners are reached, 
about five miles west of Virginia. Junction is the lower 
village on the gulch, then comes Nevada, and Central is 
the connecting link between that and Yirginia ; but all 
bear the impress of decay. The gulch has been worked 
now for fifteen miles, and none but the patient, industrious, 
economical Chinamen can make wages in its deep shafts 
and drifts and its shapeless heaps of earth. A few regu- 
lar miners linger in favorite streaks, while others are wash- 
ing down the hill-sides by the hydraulic process ; but only 



ALDER GULCH AND ITS WEALTH. 3 13 

by one gTand bed-rock flume can, perhaps, half the remaining 
millions of gold be taken from Alder. No leads are found 
below Virginia, and all discovered for five miles above the 
city have more or less of silver, and did not contribute to 
the forty or fifty millions already washed from the gulch. 
From Summit its wonderful deposits have been decaying 
and sweeping down for untold centuries ; and their nuggets 
slept forty feet beneath the gathering earth, while the finer 
particles coursed downward until the precious metal be- 
came too fine to be saved by any ordinary process. 



LETTER XXXIY. 

The Mineral "Wealth of Montana. — Eecent Discoveries of Mines 
of G-reat Promise. — The Economical Delivery of Ores. — Causes 
of Failure of Mills. — Improved Machinery coming into the 
Territory. — Prospects of Legitimate Mining in Montana. — The 
"Freeze-Out G-ame." — Judicious Development of Mines much 
needed. — How G-old-Mines are discovered. — The Prospecter. — 
His Love of Adventure.— His Dream of Gold. — His Keckless- 
ness of Life. — How much he contributes to the Nation, and 
how poorly rewarded himself. — Kushing from Diggings to 
some New Eldorado. — The Salmon Kiver Stampede. — The 
Prospecter 's Dream of Home. 

UxiON City, Montana Terr., September 10, 1867. 
Every day seems to develop new sources of wealth in 
Montana. There are now hundreds of good leads of gold 
and silver in the Territory, whose yield has been well 
tested, which are waiting for wisely-directed capital to 
make them produce most satisfactory results. I have ex- 
plained in a former letter how many of the best leads are 
owned in small claims and fractions of claims, so as to 
effectually preclude successful development. But it is now 
understood by owners here that the time is past when 
Eastern capitalists will risk their money in fractions of 
leads, scattered so that none of them can be worked pro- 
fitably. I notice that in the recent discoveries, some of 
which are of marvelous richness, care is taken in most in- 
stances to have a sufficient amount owned or controlled 
by one man, or one interest, to justify thorough develop- 
ments; and this important fact will give the new leads 
(314) 



CAUSES OF FAILURE OF MILLS. 315 

decided advantage over many of the older ones when com- 
panies seek for mines. Hitherto there has been no such 
thing as economical delivery of ores from the mines of 
Montana, and mills, as a rule, have been of an indifferent 
quality. They have been erected and started as if they 
had to be run but a season or two at most, and the proper 
development of mines was not warranted. This year 
some of the very best mills are arriving, both from the 
East and California, and in many instances the mines are 
being handled in the most methodical manner. Although 
the location of the richest leads in this mountain-region 
gives the best opportunities for delivering ores by tunnels 
at half the cost of shafting, I do not know of any company 
that has attempted to tunnel until this season; and I 
doubt whether any mill in the Territory is as yet supplied 
in that manner. In very many cases, companies own 
only fractions of leads, and cannot tunnel without doing 
as much for the benefit of others as for themselves. They 
are therefore compelled to sink shafts to work one hun- 
dred or two hundred feet; and thus the cost of mining is 
enormous, with wages from five to eight dollars per day. 
I am glad to observe, however, that most of the develop- 
ments started this season have been by tunnels, and gen- 
erally a degree of system and far-reaching direction is 
taking the place of the efforts to produce gold by mere 
temporary and imperfect working of leads. No com- 
pany or association should undertake the mining and re- 
duction of Montana ores without being fully assured that 
they are prepared to do the best work at the minimum 
cost. Science and skill must, as far as it is possible, 
economize labor, or profits will be speedily wasted. Some 
companies have failed in this region, because they had no 
earthly chance to succeed ; and some have succeeded in 
spite of the imbecility of their direction. Mills have been 



316 PROSPECTS OF LEGITIMATE MINING. 

erected here, as in Colorado, without testing leads; and 
when the leads intended to supply the mills failed, the 
almost boundless wealth around them has saved them 
from disastrous failure. No good quartz-mill should fail 
in Montana, even if the owners have been utterly defrauded 
in their mines. I believe that there is not a mill in any 
part of the Territory where custom-work (crushing for 
other parties) could not be had at a fair price to employ 
it; and it must be so for several years to come. Some mills 
are failures because the machinery is imperfect and will 
not crush the ores or save the gold successfully. Indiffer- 
ent machinery may be used for many purposes in the 
States, where the business to which it is applied is well 
understood and repairs cheap and easily procured ; but an 
imperfect quartz-mill in Montana is not worth erecting. I 
noticed one mill, owned in Pennsylvania, that has a good 
building, plenty of ore about it, a large lot of w^ood ranked 
up (worth seven dollars per cord in gold), and the ma- 
chinery gave out hopelessly in working less than five tons 
of ore. 

Of the mills now in course of erection in Montana, I 
believe that nine out of ten Avill be positively successful. 
The machinery is generally of the most improved order, 
and, as a rule, they are under the supervision of experi- 
enced and practical men. The sad fate of so many mining- 
companies in Colorado, most of which w^ere the offspring 
of feverish speculation, has been of most essential service 
to this Territory, and I look for but few failures of the 
mills hereafter erected or now being erected. The mines 
are so numerous, and so generally rich, that good ma- 
chinery and good management can scarcely fail. I have 
paid much attention to the mineral wealth of Montana 
during the month I have been here, and I must to-day re- 
peat, with increased confidence, the invitation made in a 



RICH SILVER-ORES. 317 

recent letter for $20,000,000 of capital to develop the vast 
wealth of these mountains. True, there must be occasional 
disappointments by unexpected and unaccountable failure 
of leads which promised well, and now and then a culmi- 
nation of misfortune that human foresight and energy 
cannot control; but the proper outlay, under judicious 
direction, cannot, as a rule, fail to return immense profits 
to the owners of mines and mills in this section. The 
mines have not been as fully tested as in California; but 
all scientific and practical experience must be at fault, if 
the Montana mines do not increase in richness as they are 
developed. In no other country in the world are the leads 
better defined or less capricious than here; and thus far 
there has been no trouble in the complete mastery of the 
ores by ordinary machinery. Some of the richest ores 
contain sulphurets ; but so far the Montana miner wel- 
comes them as evidence of increased richness, instead of 
accepting them as an impediment to reduction, as in Colo- 
rado. But, whatever may be the character of the ores 
here, when the leads have been tested to the depth at- 
tained in California, there is enough, and more than 
enough, of easily-mastered ores in this Territory to serve 
the purposes of the present generation. Those who are 
not especially interested in the mining-operations of pos- 
terity need not borrow any trouble about the abundance 
and simplicity of the gold-ores of Montana. The reduc- 
tion of the rich silver-ores here has been attended with 
some difficulty in certain localities, and has been easy 
and successful in others. Quite a number of silver-leads 
contain the necessary amount of galena to smelt them 
economically, and the litharge is worth from two hundred 
and fifty to three hundred dollars per ton, or twelve to 
fifteen cents per pound. The litharge from silver-ores, 
adapted to smelting, contains about seventy-five to eighty- 

28 



318 THE ^'FREEZE-OUT GAME:' 

five per cent, of pure lead. In the entire absence of galena 
in the silver-ores, they are crushed and amalgamated suc- 
cessfully by the process employed for the reduction of 
gold-ores. 

Let me here throw out a timely caution to all Eastern 
capitalists who have invested, or may contemplate invest- 
ing, in distant mining-companies. It is perilous to place 
money at the disposal of corporations without being fully 
assured of the integrity of the controlling parties. The 
"■ freeze-out" game is a common and luxuriant growth in 
successful mining-sections. I have seen several establish- 
ments arbitrarily closed by a few in immediate control, to 
depress the shares and force other owners to sell at a 
sacrifice. I could now chalk the hats of managers in Mon- 
tana who, after using the capital of all the share-holders to 
prove the value of their mills and mines, have closed their 
mills on various pretexts, and mean that there shall be 
no profits realized until the flattened-out stock can be 
gathered into the hands of the few who govern the inner 
circle of the direction. In mining-regions, I regret to say, 
this is but too generally considered a legitimate business 
transaction, and Eastern men of fair standing are often 
seized with the infection when they are sent out as the 
guardians of the interests of stockholders. There are perils 
enough in all enterprises so distant from capitalists, with- 
out the danger of being cheated out of the fruits of the in- 
vestment after the risk has been incurred and success as- 
sured. Any good mill in Montana that does not pay 
wants a change of management. Money may be wasted 
in pursuing wild-cat mines, such as are hawked about in 
the Eastern cities by speculators ; but no mill-owners here 
should follow dubious leads to disa.ster, when there is an 
abundance of good ore offering to mill-men. I am quite 
sure that five hundred thousand dollars judiciously devoted 



now GOl.D-MINES ARE DTSCOVERED. 319 

to the opening of mines in Montana this season would 
justif}^ the erection of one thousand first-class mills next 
season. There have been more valuable leads discovered 
in the Territory, so far, this year, than in any previous 
season, and the gulches clearly demonstrate that very 
many are yet undiscovered, while there are, doubtless, 
thousands of leads, of various richness, in the mountains, 
which have never given washings to the gulches. These 
will be found as others are developed. 

Few persons in the East have any just conceptions of 
the manner in which gold-leads are discovered. They 
hear only of the discovery of valuable mines, but no one 
records the innumerable failures. For every one who is 
successful, fifty or more are unsuccessful. The placer 
"prospecter" is the pioneer in the development of the 
precious metals. If low in purse, he traverses the mount- 
ains on foot; but, if able to own an animal, he has a 
''broncho" (native or California pony), mule, or jack, on 
which he carries his ''outfit," consisting of "grub," pan, 
spade, pick, blanket, and revolver ; and he will thus travel 
hundreds of miles in search of "new diggings." He ob- 
serves the mountain-cliffs which give any indication of 
gold. In the neighborhood of most, or perhaps all, leads, 
may be found " croppings" of quartz, which are readily 
recognized by the experienced prospector. Guided by these, 
he will seek the gulch or ravine into which flow the wash- 
ings from the hills. The elements decay the hardest 
quartz, separate the gold, and wash it down into the 
gulches, where it naturally gravitates, by reason of its 
greater weight, to the bottom or "bed-rock." Wherever 
gold exists on the surface of the mountain-cliffs, it has been 
washing down for untold centuries, and its richest deposit 
is in the bottom of the gulch. If the surface of a gulch 
shows a fair " color," it is always safe to count on an in- 



320 THE PROSPECTER. 

crease of gold in going down through the earth to the rock. 
The prospecter tries the earth by digging at various points, 
placing the dirt in his pan, and then carefully washing it 
out until the free gold and particles of rich iron with gold 
in them only remain. These gradually separate from the 
earth as the pan is carefully handled and sluiced out, and 
settle in the bottom, and the prospecter judges, by the 
"color" he obtains, of the value of the gulch. The gold 
will show in various shapes. Sometimes it is in coarse 
nuggets as large as flaxseed, and at other times it is in 
very fine particles or in thin flakes. If the digging shows 
"pay-dirt," he stakes his claim in accordance with the 
mining-laws of the Territory or district, secures the water- 
privilege in the same manner, and sends for his most 
trusted friends to take claims with him, so as to have the 
whole gulch, as far as possible, under harmonious control. 
One man can take up only two hundred feet, and by stak- 
ing and recording it his title is perfect until forfeited by 
palpable abandonment, which the laws clearly define. 
Hasty flumes and ditches are then constructed, the gulch 
is dug over as far as it will pay, and perhaps half the gold 
is saved by the rude process. If eight or ten dollars can 
be taken out per day to the hand, it is considered worth 
working. If less than that sum is realized, it is usually 
not considered good pay, and the restless pioneer fits up 
and starts off again to find more prolific fields of wealth, 
while the seedy and unfortunate take his place and make ^ 
a precarious living by working what he has abandoned. 
His love of adventure is usually even stronger than his 
love of gold, and he is easily tempted from fair diggings ,'| 
to search for better, and from better, if ever found, he \% 
again tempted to search for the realization of fabled wealth/ 
Now and then he becomes reduced to the verge of beggary ; 



HTS RECKLESSNESS OF LIFE. 321 

yields to stern necessity, and seeks legitimate employment 
as a laborer or miner for a season. No sooner does he re- 
cuperate his ever-varying fortunes than he starts again 
upon his favorite prospecting path. Often his trips are 
taken in winter, when gold is believed to be in some par- 
ticular locality, and he sleeps in the snow, and suffers ex- 
posure that would kill a dozen Eastern men. An Indian 
romance about gold-deposits, or any vague rumor, no 
matter whence it comes, is enough to start the prospecter 
any distance, regardless of weather. There is hardly a 
gulch or ravine in the Territories of Idaho or Montana, ex- 
cepting where the Indians reside, that has not been pros- 
pected more or less by these sturdy adventurers ; and scores 
of lives have been given to Indian savagery in efforts to 
find the wealth of the Yellowstone. Even the scalping- 
knife does not deter the prospecter, and each year furnishes 
new victims to the ambition to find the supposed rich de- 
posits of Eastern Montana, where the Indians relentlessly 
dispute the advance of the pale-faces. Thus have these 
pioneers prospected the whole mountain-regions ; and, while 
the man}^ millions of gold produced annually in Montana 
is the fruit of their work, there is not one in fifty of them 
who could pay his way back to the States to-day. Most 
of them have, at one time or another, been well off, or had 
a fortune within their grasp ; but they waste as fast as 
they gather, and abandon good claims to gratify the ruling 
passion to discover better ones. 

When rich placer-diggings are found, it is clear that 
good quartz-leads must be in the vicinity on the hills; and 
if two or more different kinds of gulch-gold are found, 
they indicate as many different sources or leads. To find 
them is often a task of no common magnitude, and some- 
times the effort is entirely fruitless. All the hills near to 
pay-gulches are dotted over with the mark of the indefati- 

28* 



322 REVERSES OF THE PROSPECTER. 

gable prospecter. The gulches are often miles in length, 
and the character and quantity of gold found up to any 
one point in the gulch indicate whether any or all the 
leads are still higher up in the mountains. If a particular 
quality of gulch-gold is found only to a particular point, 
the lead or leads from which it comes must be in that 
locality ; and thus the yield of the gulches indicates with 
some certainty the cliff on which the lead lies. The lead, 
however, is but a narrow strip, usually from two to four 
feet wide, and months are often spent by dozens of pros- 
pecters in unsuccessful efforts to find it. Every few rods 
on such hills show a hole dug out from three to ten feet 
deep. In order to gain title to the lead, it must be clearly 
ascertained, the wall-rock found, and a specimen of the 
genuine quartz deposited with the Recorder, to guard 
against fraud. The place where the lead is found is called 
the "discovery," and the person who found it is entitled 
to the discovery claim, exclusive of his right to enter a 
claim upon the mine. He stakes the discovery, placards 
it, stating name and date of discovery, and selects his 
friends to locate claims adjoining his. Sometimes he is 
paid for the privilege of taking claims with him; but he is 
eminently kind and generous to his associates, and they 
are usually allowed to enter claims without charge. In 
nineteen cases out of twenty the operations of the discov- 
erer and prospecter cease with the discovery, staking, and 
recording of the claims. Instead of developing what they 
possess, they will start out again in search of new dis- 
coveries. They have no capital for the proper de- 
velopment of their mines and the erection of mills ; and, 
if they had, they would in most cases spend it in pursuit 
of the ignis-fatuus that is ever luring them to imaginary 
fields of wealth. In time, reverses come. Hard winters 
and high prices for provisions soon waste the scanty re- 



RUMORS OF NEW DISCOVERIES. 323 

sources of the prospecter. The gulches are closed, and 
grim want flings its appalling shadows over the owners 
of mines which may have millions of slumbering gold. 
The speculator or "middle-man" steps in, buys his claim 
for a song, and then sells it to Eastern capitalists at a lib- 
eral and sometimes fabulous advance. After the weary, 
pitiless winter has been braved out in habitual suffering 
and privation, the prospecter starts again, and repeats the 
bitter experience of the past, until broken health or multi- 
plied misfortunes make him work his way back to the 
land of his childhood, or consign him to an untimely 
grave in the bleak mountains. 

We little know how much of fruitless toil every dollar 
of gold we coin has cost the prospecter. His life is one 
of incessant privation, sacrifice, and labor. He dreams of 
gold, not so much because he loves it, as because of his 
-controlling but ever- deceptive hopes of discovering richer 
and still richer deposits of the precious metal. No matter 
how well his labor might be requited by devoting it to 
what he already possessed, he ever dreams of still more 
brilliant stores of wealth. In his estimation, what he 
produces has no value beyond supplying his wants and 
caprices and supporting him in his delusive dream. Swift 
as the winds, even in this sparsely-settled country, almost 
without mails and telegraphs, the rumor of new discoveries, 
perhaps hundreds of miles distant, seems to fly ; and in an 
hour camps are almost depopulated, cabins untenanted, 
flumes and ditches abandoned to decay, and with the sim- 
plest mining- outfit thrown over their shoulders the miners 
stream off to the new Eldorado. Last winter the word 
came, no one hardly knew how, from Salmon River, one 
hundred and fifty miles distant across the Rocky range, 
that the great gold-deposit of the mountains had been 
discovered. None could wait for confirmation of the news, 



324 THE SALMON RIVER STAMPEDE. 

lest others should distance them in securing claims. Clad 
in snow-shoes, they traversed the mountains in midwinter, 
over a route destitute of provisions and shelter, and nearly 
ten thousand hapless prospecters were huddled in the 
Salmon River region, where there were not paying claims 
for one thousand men. Fearful destitution followed. 
Many were frozen in their efforts to get there or return ; 
and now the tide of gloomy, penniless men is passing 
back, glad to find a day's labor at anything to save them- 
selves from starvation. Similar stampedes are made 
every year, and in nine cases out of ten they result in dis- 
aster. Thus does the prospecter ebb and flow from occa- 
sional rays of sunshine to the darkest of days. He flits 
from one delusion to another, ever tireless in his devotion 
to his dream of a success he could not define if asked for 
the measure of his ambition. Disappointment seems to 
have no power to direct him in wiser paths. A few have, 
in the past, attained bewildering success, but only after 
mountains of faded hopes had checkered their experience; 
and the adventurer still dreams and perseveres, and waits 
but to recover from the shock of one defeat to invite an- 
other. His life is spent in mingled disappointment and 
toil as he marks the earth's great mines of wealth for 
others to develop and enjoy. But one affection at times 
ventures to dispute the mastery of his omnipotent dream. 
I have seen hundreds of these bronzed and sturdy men, 
who have encountered life's rudest blasts with unflinch- 
ing purpose, and each one's eyes brighten, his harsh, 
furrowed lines soften, and his brave heart swells with 
emotion, as he speaks of "going home." It is the silver 
lining to every shadow that crosses his path, and the 
crowning hope that nerves him in every trial. To be 
successful and return to old friends, perhaps to long- 
separated but still fondly-cherished household gods, is 



THE PROSPECTEHS- humble graves. 325 

the dream whose brightness gilds even the dream of gold. 
But few, however, realize even a tithe of their hopes ; 
and many, very many, after bright promises have faded 
in continued succession, bow to the inevitable doom of 
mortals, and ridge the mountain-slopes with their monu- 
mentless tombs. No class of men have done so much to 
swell the nation's wealth, and none have been so poorly 
requited. I never pass their humble graves without feel- 
ing that I could there drop a tear in sympathy with the 
thousands who serve the world so much,^— and themselves 
so little ; and, when exhausted nature surrenders the un- 
equal contest, the hand of the stranger must soothe their 
fevered brains, and perform for them the last mournful 
offices of earth. 



LETTER XXXV. 

The Melancholy Days. — The Tide of Progress. — The Living 
Eeign on the Oregon. — "OldBaldy." — His Advent and His- 
tory. — His Relics from his Companionship in the Deep. — His 
Kind Admonition of the Coming of the Storm-King. — He 
changes not with the Advance of Civilization. — " Lo" and his 
Bride. — The Tate of the Red Man. — How he became peace- 
able. — Another Visitor. — The Mountain-Rat. — His Original 
Social Qualities. — The Reign of the Storm-King. 

Union City, Montana Terr., September 18, 1867. 
About this time you would probably expect me to write 
that '' the melancholy days have come, the saddest of the 
year;" but we have no melancholy seasons in the Rocky 
Mountains, such as inspired the pen of Bryant by the sober 
tints of their autumnal robes. "The century-living crow," 
to which he tuned his lyre nearly threescore years ago, 
still greets the settler on the plains and turns his fledglings 
from the scraggy mountain-pines; but the Oregon has 
ceased to roll on in solitude, '' hearing no sound save his 
own dashings." The dead no longer "reign there alone." 
The belching steamer splashes the waters and divides the 
waves of the Oregon, — which has outgrown its poetic 
title, — as the tide of commerce and travel steams upward 
toward the mountain-tops ; and the living now reign in 
the midst of beauty and plenty where the Pale Horseman 
wielded his weird sceptre in the solitude of the silent 
sleepers of other ages. The mountains wear no garb but 
their favorite green ; and even in the midst of Old Winter's 
(326) 



''OLD BALDY." 32t 

fiercest scowls and angriest storms they change not. The 
quaking asp withers before the early frosts ; but it decks 
its funeral couch with no gaudy hues. It wears the solemn 
seal of death, and in pensive loneliness awaits the coming 
of another spring. Autumn, so full of mellowest beauties 
in the East, has no place in the fitful seasons of the Far 
West. The wild flowers which repay the brief summer 
suns with nature's loveliest offering, fade and die before 
winter skirmishes with the mountain-peaks, and the few 
which remain will thrust out their tinted blossoms from 
their snowy beds. 

"Old Baldy"* is my near neighbor. He is respected 
here as youth respects the venerable in all civilized com- 
munities. How long he has had his habitation where he 
now rests in conscious dignity, I know not. The time 
was, perhaps ere mortal's griefs began, when he slept in 
the bottom of the sea, and the swimming tribes, from the 
leviathan to the modest crinoid, climbed his rugged sides 
and sported in his pockets. How he came to change 
his sphere the learned can only guess, while he remains 
silent. It may be that gradually the waters were called 
to the Eastern ocean, and he rose from his uneasy bed as 
centuries rolled back into the eternal past; or perchance 
the angry earthquake flung him up toward the heavens 
and bade him stay to chill the summer breezes as they kiss 
his bronzed cheek in their onward flight. However he 
came, he was not alone. In his huge arms he brought 
with him his old associates. The plant of the ocean still 
slumbers in his watchful keeping, perfect in all its fibres 
and leafy beauty; although he has chilled it into stone 
hard as his rocky coat of mail. The shell-fish came with 
him, hid in his curves and recesses, and found a tomb 

^ Bald Mountain, the highest peak near Union City. 



328 GRANDEUR OF THE MOUNTAIN- KING. 

where life only decays, while its frail tenement remains 
and defies the elements of destruction. The monsters of 
the deep floundered about him as he rose, gave up life as 
the waters receded from his precipitous sides ; and now 
they nestle in his petrified mosses to teach mankind the 
story of the past. Whatev'er his history, whether noble 
or ignoble, there he stands, crowned in his matchless ma- 
jesty, "grand, gloomy, and peculiar," as he holds his court 
nine thousand feet above the sea. The tourists are made 
welcome to his homely hospitality. They can traverse 
his topmost peaks, climb around his dusky breast, make 
merry on his uneven sides, and gather the little wild 
flowers he shelters in his chasms and waters with his 
snows. He marks the seasons as they come and go, and 
gives early admonition to all the living who seek safety 
from man in his fastnesses, of the advent of winter. On 
Friday last he came out in his frosty robes, and gradually 
he flung the snow down the mountain-steeps, until he clad 
all the cliff's and foot-hills in his favorite attire. The sun 
will follow and restore them to increased freshness ; but the 
Mountain-King will defy the enfeebled rays, and wear his 
crown of white until the stubborn struggle with another 
summer comes. The few pines which whisker his face 
are safe from the stroke of the woodman; no fertile soils 
are allowed on his undulating plains and narrow benches ; 
the precious metals over which he has stood sentinel for 
untold decades are the gifts of the satellites which sur- 
round his throne, and he stands to-day as he has stood in 
the voiceless and unrecorded past, and as he will stand for 
centuries to come, in his native, unbroken solitude. Civili- 
zation may sweep through the surrounding valleys with 
its beneficent trains; the iron horse may make the mount- 
ains resound with his piercing screams; commerce may 
whirl along from sea to sea ; golden harvests may wave 



"XO" AND HIS BRIDE. 329 

from the Yellowstone to Missoula, from the Madison to 
Benton ; churches may point their spires to heaven, and 
schools may dot the plains to ennoble our coming men; 
but until time shall be no more, and his towering- cliffs, 
ever defiant of man, shall dissolve with fervent heat, he 
will maintain his proud, imperial grandeur. 

A few days ago he blew his cold breath upon the son of 
the forest, and "Lo" and his dusky bride visited me. The 
lord of the wilderness came from his summer of idleness, 
or worse, to beg for bread, while his menial partner led 
the pack-pony, and packed herself what the pony could 
not bear. He shook his head mournfully as the shrill 
song of the steam-whistle called the pale-faces to their 
daily toil ; for it told the story of a new supremacy. '' Buf- 
falo, moose, elk, deer, antelope, sheep — all gone — all gone ! 
Injin starve !" was his sorrowful ejaculation. "White man 
everywhere — everywhere ! Injin must die !" he added, as 
he looked out over the expansive valleys two thousand 
feet below us, and saw them spangled with cities and 
farms. He was one of the few remaining noble specimens 
of his race, — tall, proud in his bearing, straight as his 
unerring arrows, his blanket gathered gracefully about 
him, waving feathers in his hair declaring the honors he 
had won in his tribe. His well-worn Kentucky rifle lay 
carelessly across his arm, and he stood for some moments 
in painful reflection as he seemed to comprehend the sad 
destiny of himself and his brethren. '' White man at war, 
— Injin must die, — must die!" was his parting expression, 
as he walked off, in broken pride, toward the capital, to 
share, the bounty of the Great Father. While her lord 
was thus tarrying to contemplate the inexorable laws of 
progress and mourn over the fast-receding sun of their 
existence, the tender helpmate ransacked the rubbish about 
the cabins for worthless rags ; and, guiltless of sentiment 

29 



330 THE MOUNTAIN-RAT. 

and indifferent to fate, she plodded on in her favorite pur- 
suit. They were Bannacks, and friendly, civilized by 
General Conner, who taught them the path of peace as 
his batteries and battalions swept half their warriors to 
the grave. 

Another visitor has come in obedience to the warnings 
of the Mountain-King. The migratory mountain-rat, who 
rivals the Norway in his majesty, and is the most mis- 
chievous of his tribe, has fled from " Old Baldy's" chilling 
frowns, and taken up his abode with me. He has pros- 
pected the cabin from cellar to dome, opened his thor- 
oughfares in the walls, and has his loop-holes to command 
every room for retreat or offensive movements. The mer- 
chant-prince of Union City retails fruits, groceries, tobacco, 
etc. in the basement; and the new visitors have entered 
into a compulsory partnership with him. One night they 
will cut a sack of peaches, soften their nests with the flax, 
and hide the fruit in their innumerable store-houses in the 
wall. Another night they turn oculists, and deposit the 
venerable merchant's spectacles in a corner nest; and once 
they turned bankers, robbed the cash-box of the proceeds 
of a day's commerce ($6.40), and displayed the perfection 
of art in the reduction of bank-note and fractional-cur- 
rency paper to the softest lining for their habitations. Not 
content with taking cash, spectacles, and fruits, they have 
confiscated half the matron's wool designed for quilts; 
and a troop of them would have taken off bodily a woolen 
spread, but for the fact that they could not drag it through 
a hole smaller than itself. If '' Old Baldy" had shipped 
me an army of cats with his summer friends, I would have 
felt grateful ; but, as he has failed to do so, I am now re- 
cruiting the feline ranks. "Fanny," a tan terrier recently 
added to the family-circle, proffered friendship to his rat- 
ship on first meeting; but, as the friendly offer was de- 



REIGN OF THE STORM-KING. 331 

cliiiecl in a belligerent spirit, she retired under the bed- 
clothes to reflect upon the future conduct of the war. 
Since then she has been practicing by a score of attempts 
to drive a sociable pig from the door ; but his majesty of 
the kinky tail will lie down, yawn, and deliberately snooze 
in the midst of the attack, occasionally grunting a wish 
for undisturbed repose. 

So winter encompasses Union City in the middle of the 
first month of autumn. The six inches of snow about us 
are the prelude to the coming mountains of drift, and the 
hoarse winds which play their fretful melodies through 
the pines are but the advance of the grand army of the 
Storm-King who is about to found his frosty empire in our 
-midst. For two months the struggle will be constant 
between sunshine and storm. Indian summer will come 
to the relief of the God of Day for a brief season ; but the 
contest will grow more and more unequal with each short- 
ening day; and when merry Christmas and jolly New- 
Year come, the highways hence will be trackless, the sun 
will only peep over the mountain-tops to tell us noon has 
come, and then slide down the whitened slopes, as the cur- 
tain of night spreads the shadows over the glittering icicles 
of the rocky domes. 



LETTER XXXYL 

A Western Court. — The Court-Koom. — Limited Powers of the 
Judge. — Freedom of the Lawyers — Chief-Justice Hosmer. — 
A Specimen Case. — The same Point decided Five Times, after as 
many Legal Wrangles. — Disregard of Judicial Decrees. — Sleep- 
ing with a Professor. — Interesting Eesearches into the Past. — 
Imaginary Wanderings over Montana Millions of Years ago. 
— Con Orem and his Prize-Fight. — Invited to be a Keferee. — 
A Reminiscence of the Rebellion. — Greneral Fitz-John Porter. 
— Mrs. Swisshelm and General Grant. — He will be next Presi- 
-Future Visits to Montana. 

Union City, Montana Teer., September 30, 1867. 
I HAVE recently given four days' attendance to our 
Western court, where justice is judicially administered 
with variations of Avhich Blackstone never dreamed in his 
philosophy. The court-room is the loft of a store, and is 
devoted promiscuously to justice, dances, sermons, itiner- 
ant shows, and other useful and ornamental institutions. 
It has convenient side-doors, opening directly into billiards, 
cock-tails, and short cards. A long carpet-covered sofa, 
elevated on four blocks, accommodates the chief-justice 
who holds the district courts here, and he can assume the 
horizontal or perpendicular attitude during the tedious 
speeches of the lawyers without encroaching upon the dig- 
nity of his great office. Under the laws he has little power 
over juries, since he does not charge them, as is the custom 
in Pennsylvania. Points may be submitted to him, asking 
particular instructions on the law, and he answers the re- 
quests as he affirms or negatives them. Here his power 
( 332 ) 



CHIEF-JUSTICE HOSMER. 333 

over the trial of a case ends. Of the facts the jurors are 
tlie sole judges, without judicial explanation or any sug- 
gestions whatever from the court, and cases go hap-hazard 
to the juries, and are kicked from post to pillar by windy 
advocates. Chief-Justice Hosmer seems to have started 
wrong in the outset, — like a timid driver failing to wield 
the reins with vim in his first drive of a vicious team; 
and the team has measurably driven the driver ever since. 
Stern in his integrity, and well versed in the law, he does 
his part creditably in all things, save in exercising with a 
firm purpose the high prerogatives of a court of justice. 
Half a dozen lawyers- will speak at once, wrangling over 
silly technicalities, hurl disgraceful personalities at each 
other, play at stupid badinage to bring down the house, 
and talk almost endlessly, with boundless latitude, in advo- 
cating causes before juries. The judge tolerates it com- 
placently, and usually lets the show go on in its own way, 
unless they undertake, as they do once in awhile, to ex- 
plain away the court itself, when he bristles up, clears the 
board, and lets them take a fresh start. One case, in which 
I was incidentally interested, required four days of skir- 
mishing, every morning and noon, to get all parties to 
understand what disposition was to be made of it. It was 
an action of -ejectment. The court decided that the record- 
title was the best evidence in the case, and must govern 
it, — a principle that would not have required a written 
opinion to establish it in most places, as it seems to require 
here. The record evidence being against the plaintiff, he 
found himself without any evidence at all. Some question 
— I could not understand what it was — engaged several 
lawyers on each side in a protracted discussion, to which 
the court listened, sometimes serenely and sometimes rest- 
lessly. The jury was sworn, the plaintiff had no evidence 
to present, and, instead of ending it, a free fight followed 

29* 



334 PROCEEDINGS IN A MONTANA COURT. 

as to the status of the respective parties in the case, and 
the effect of the ruling of the court. Finally all got con- 
fused, and the case was postponed until the next morning. 
Then the plaintiff took a non-suit, whereupon the defend- 
ant's counsel asked judgment, and another row followed, 
between six lawyers, never less than two speaking at a 
time ; and, finally, another postponement until noon re- 
stored peace. Next the plaintiff moved to take off the 
non-suit for error in the ruling of the court, and another 
free fight followed, until confusion reigned again, and the 
decision was postponed. When it next came up, a writ- 
ten opinion was delivered, refusing to take off the non- 
suit. Then followed exceptions in detail, and a motion to 
dissolve the injunction restraining the defendant from pos- 
session brought on another spirited war of words, and con- 
fused the case into another postponement. Finally the end 
was reached ; the injunction — which of necessity fell when 
the plaintiff was ruled out of court — was dissolved ; and 
so the oase goes to the Supreme Court for review. The 
case was absolutely disposed of the first hour it was on 
trial, and so it would have ended in any Eastern court; 
but the judge was compelled to decide the same question 
practically not less than four times, after as many fierce 
discussions, before he could reach the logical, inevitable 
results of his first ruling, which was conclusive of the 
case. It must not be inferred that, because lawyers thus 
conduct cases in a manner that would destroy any good 
cause in an Eastern court, they are wanting in ability. As 
a rule, the bar of Montana county-seats is as able as the 
average of Eastern bars ; but the latitude allowed in all 
Western courts, and the circumscribed power of the judges, 
seem to make it the duty of lawyers to fight a case in 
every shape, and at every step, until fight is no longer pos- 
sible. Speeches are not limited, nor are they held either 



ROOMIXG WITH A PROFESSOR. 335 

to the law or the evidence ; and there is always a chance 
for the worst of cases by confusing a portion of the jury. 
If I had been judge the four days I attended court, I am 
sure that half the bar would have been in jail the first day, 
and probably the residue would have been stricken from 
the roll before I had got through. The business of the 
term could then have been finished up, with justice to all, 
in about three days ; while, as things are, it will require a 
month or more of court, and half the cases will go over. 
A few weeks ago, when visiting different portions of the 
Territory, I saw a man, armed with his rifle, guarding his 
claims against the sheriff, who had been ordered by the 
court to have a survey made. In company with me was 
the judge from whose court the order had issued, and he 
seemed to regard it in any other light than that of a most 
flagrant contempt of the authority of the law. This was 
in Judge Munson's jurisdiction. They do not play such 
pranks on Judge Williston, who learned the duties and 
prerogatives of courts from his father, — one of Pennsyl- 
vania's best judges in the best days of her legal tribunals. 
I have found the same loose system of the administration 
of justice prevailing in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. 

While attending court, the crowded condition of the 
principal hotel in the city denied me a room to myself, and 
a good-hearted Professor* took me in and divided his nar- 
row bed with me. We have both been delving in mines and 
studying the subjugation of the varied ores of Montana, — 
he from the stand-point of science, and I from the miners' 
well-earned practical knowledge. That we should talk 
was natural ; for everybody talked around us. The thin 
board partitions which divided our little room from those 
adjoining might have made us master of many a forbidden 

* Professor Eaton, of New York. 



336 INTERESTING RESEARCHES INTO THE PAST. 

family topic ; ])iit we were both past romance, — he bald, 
and I well frosted, — and we plunged into science from min- 
gled motives of politeness and interest. I could not un- 
fold the walks and chases we had, in imagination, through 
formations now belonging only to the past, and after 
strange animals, wingless birds, and fantastic insects, whose 
history is written only in the mysterious depths of the 
earth ; how we waded through the half-chilled fluidity of 
a million years ago, dug down into the Silurian and De- 
vonian periods, gazed in wonder at the footprints of the 
Permian, and came up, through the scaleless fishes and 
curious mammalia of the Tertiary, to the advent of our 
race ; how we chased the mammoth of Montana over plains 
now flung up into shapeless cliffs, and climbed the barren, 
scraggy rocks whose once green surface fed the monsters 
of forgotten ages ; how we sailed oh fathomless seas 
where now are blooming fields and swarming cities, and 
took in the sportive finny tribes where now we ascend 
miles above the receding ocean to look on nature's shift- 
ing panorama and bewildering transformations ; how we 
peeped into the ceaseless but unconsuming fires, ever kiss- 
ing the earth beneath us, followed the seams of precious 
metals they have thrown to the surface, and strained the 
favorite science of the day to explain the laws by which 
these hidden treasures are governed ; how we paused 
to admire the few of living genera of animals which 
have survived through all the world's changes, make 
one bow of reverence to that single venerable family, and 
then move on to mourn the thousands that have passed 
away; how we blessed the flowers which beautify the 
earth, for numbering among their living a preponderance 
over their dead, and rejoiced that the birds of song have 
braved the ebbs and flows of the world's waters and its 
perpetual changes and have but few of their number as 



CON. OREM AND HIS PRIZE FIOHT. 33^ 

only of the past; and then, when weary of the romance 
of by-gone years, how we traveled on to that other great 
period, of which we read with tremulous yoice, " when 
time shall be no more," and called up the dead of these 
mountain-slopes, ghastly statues of stone, — petrified by 
nature's great mineral fountains as perfectly as the sculp- 
tor's chisel could mould their forms from the seamless gran- 
ite, — and gave them over to Him who alone can execute 
His immutable laws. To my companion it was an even- 
ing of grateful repose ; to me, one of boundless interest; and 
thus we wandered until I gave way to the demands of 
weary nature, to be startled out of fitful dozes by the sav- 
age whirl of some leviathan of the deep, or the ferocious 
assault of some mammoth we had brought to bay. But, 
when awakened, the hoarse voice of the infuriated monster 
mellowed down into the gentle tones of my unflagging 
Professor. At last he sprang to the floor and seized his 
glass. " The moon is here : it is said that one of her cra- 
ters has fallen in. Let — me — see." And with his glass care- 
fully adjusted, bearing upon the Queen of Night, I left him 
for the land of dreams. 

The delay of the courts consigned me to idleness, and I 
strolled through the city from corner to corner and crowd 
to crowd to hasten the sluggish hours. Passing a well- 
known saloon, a close-cropped head, pleasant face, and 
muscular frame confronted me. A hand as black as jet, 
from the application of chemicals, was thrown most famil- 
iarly on my shoulder, and I was thus addressed : " Colonel, 
I'm goin' to lam Jim Dwyer on the 25th of October, — goin' 
to be a gentlemanly mill, — the most respectable bruise ever 
we've had in the Territory; and I want you and Governor 
Smith to be referees or judges. What d'ye say?" From 
the statement made, I knew for the first time that my 
familiar friend was Con. Orem, a hero of the prize-ring, 



338 A REMINISCENCE OF THE REBELLION. 

who is now in training for his coming fight with Dwj^er. 
To the best of my knowledge, I had never met him before, 
but his manner was so free and sociable that I almost 
wondered whether I had not been his partner in some of 
his former "mills." His countenance sparkled with genu- 
ine good-fellowship, despite his brutal profession; and, in 
obedience to the customs of the country, I treated the 
proposition with respect. I did not know but that Con. 
had, like myself, been in some State legislature, and that 
he could justly claim a mutual sympathy because of com- 
mon misfortune in reputation. I informed him, therefore, 
that I would consult Governor Smith, and we would 
answer at an early day. " Colonel Sanders," said he, 
"read the rules of the ring for me at my last fight; and if 
you want to bet fifty, just go it on me," he added, with an 
expressive wink meant to assure me that the wager would 
be a safe one. We shook hands and parted, as I declined 
his proffered treat at the bar ; and, as I have not yet had 
time to consult with the worthy Executive, the honor of 
presiding over the fight is still to be accepted or declined. 
It is most probable, however, that I will have other en- 
gagements on that day. 

Reading a paragraph in one of the papers to-day, recalled 
to my mind very vividly a most impressive incident of the 
early and dark days of the rebellion. When Baltimore 
treason severed communication between the loyal North 
and the national capital, and the stoutest-hearted quailed 
under the impenetrable gloom that enveloped us, I was in 
constant council day and night with three men in Harris- 
burg who were struggling in the very depths of despair to 
bring a ray of hope upon the country's cause. Governor 
Curtin, ever noble among the noblest in the day of trial, 
and Colonel Scott, as faithful as he was boundless in re- 
sources, were two of the three upon whom devolv^ed the 



GENERAL FITZ-JOUN PORTER. 339 

grave responsibility of acting for an imperiled nation with- 
out advices from its head. By them sat a young officer, 
whose fine face seemed to knit with firmer purpose as cloud 
piled upon cloud, and whose keen, dark eye flashed with pa- 
triotic defiance as dangers thickened around our flag. Sher- 
man, then commanding a battery, was hurrying on from 
the West, and brave volunteers were swarming from every 
hill and valley of Pennsylvania to answer the call of their 
beloved Executive. I shall never forget the answer of the 
young officer to the question, "What shall be done?" In 
manner fitting the noble Avords he uttered, with all the ardor 
of a patriot, yet with the stern dignity of a true soldier, he 
said, ''March through Baltimore. I will lead the troops 
through or over the ashes of Baltimore to my chief The 
loyal people shall not be obstructed by treason on the 
highway to their beleaguered capitol." He was armed with 
the authority of Winfield Scott, on whose staff he was act- 
ing ; and he would have marched as he proposed, had not 
the Annapolis route been opened and orders reached him 
to avoid Baltimore before he was prepared to move his 
forces. I saw him rise in command as the war progressed, 
until he wore the twin stars won in hotly-contested and 
skillfully-directed battles. I afterward saw him fall be- 
fore the verdict of a court-martial that clouded him with 
dishonor and made him an alien to the nationality for 
which he had offered his life. I felt then that he might 
have erred in feeling or in judgment, but that he was faith- 
less I could not accept, although the common peril forbade 
agitation for individual justice. I need hardly say I refer 
to the case of Fitz-John Porter. I am glad indeed to see 
that, in obedience to the request of many prominent men 
who were once his accusers, his case is likely to be sub- 
mitted to another court, wherein prejudice and jealousies 
will not defeat a just judgment. I never met General 



340 ^^tRS. SWISS HELM AND GENERAL GRANT. 

Porter from the beginning of the war until the day the 
nation was stricken in sorrow by the defeat of Rosecrans 
at Chickamauga. We sat together in a car when the dis- 
patch was handed me, and, although he was then formally 
adjudged a stranger to his country, no one was more 
deep]}^ affected by that country's disaster. In his case 
there should not l3e generosity, but there should be justice. 
The crimsoned surges of fraternal war have subsided. The 
dead cannot be restored ; but if the living have been doomed 
to worse than death wrongfully, there can be atonement. 

I see that my belligerent friend and correspondent, Mrs. 
Swisshelm, has succeeded in "hammering" Judge Wil- 
liams into the Republican nomination for Supreme Judge, 
and thereby done the Republicans a kindness. She now 
seems to be engaged in the laudable task of " hammering" 
General Grant into the Republican nomination for the Presi- 
dency. Although I have been out of the current of national 
politics for some months, I feel warranted in saying that 
her pungent blows are not necessary to secure that end. 
He alone of our great captains, who brightened and faded 
in the terrible crucible of war, gave the Republic its new 
lease of regenerated life ; and even if he erred in magnanim- 
ity when he was crowned the great victor, neither the 
judgment of the people nor the pen of history will so record 
it. No man has more resolutely and faithfully braved 
treason, either in the field or in the councils of the nation, 
than General Grant; and the time is not distant when his 
administration of the War Department will be accepted by 
all as but a new proof of his unfaltering devotion to the 
right. If he shall not be the next President, I think it will 
be because so many days have not been allotted him on 
earth. 

I have been surprised at the earnestness with which 
several old friends in recent letters have inquired whether 



FUTURE VISITS TO MONTANA. Ml 

it is true, as reported, that I mean to make Montana my 
liome. I had no such purpose when I left the " Green 
Spot," and have no such purpose now. Considerations 
not anticipated when I started for the Far West have in- 
duced me to protract my stay until next spring ; and not 
the least of these is the decided and apparently permanent 
improvement in the health of those I most love. I hope in 
after-years, when the locomotive shall travel these mount- 
ains and the savage live only in history, to re-visit with 
each summer the fertile valleys and marvelous wealth of 
Montana; but when I seek the shelter of my own home 
it will be where spring and autumn wear their crowning 
beauties, and where old Winter is not lord of the seasons. 
If the same kind Providence that has thus far protected 
us from every danger shall so will it, the return of another 
spring will find me again mingling with the valued friends 
I left behind as I journeyed toward the setting sun. 



30 



LETTER XXXVII. 

How Gold and Silver are produced. — Gulch- or Placer-Diggings. 
— How the Gulches are worked. — Devices to save the Gold in 
washing the Earth. — How Miners make Laws. — The Sanctity 
of their Mining-Laws. — Quartz-Mining. — How Miners procure 
the Ores. — Shafts, Tunnels, and Drifts. — Hoisting by "Windlass, 
"Whim, and Steam. — Foul Air and Water. — Selecting Quartz. — 
Difference in Color and Quality. — Crushing the Ores. — Amal- 
gamating the Gold with Quicksilver. — Working Sulphurets. — 
Arastras and Barrels — Stamp-Mills and Chilian Mills. — Silver- 
Ores. — Smelting Galena Silver-Ores. — The Clean-Up. — Amal- 
gam.— The Brick of Gold. 

"Union City, Montana Terr., October 2, 1867. 

How is gold produced? This question could be an- 
swered in general terms by almost any intelligent person ; 
but there are few, without personal observation in mining- 
regions, who have any just conception of the intricate de- 
tails necessary to the production of the precious metals. 
All know that millions are annually developed ft-om the 
various gulches and mines in the Rocky Mountain Terri- 
tories and States, and the difference between placers and 
quartz-mines is popularly understood ; but of the skill, 
patience, and labor essential to produce gold, even by the 
simplest process, the public generally have no sort of cor- 
rect appreciation. 

Gulch- or placer-mining is the simplest method of taking 
gold from the earth. Gulches are simply the ravines into 
which the gold-croppings of rich leads in the mountain- 
cliffs are washed. Surface- or blossom-quartz is usually 
. ( 342 ) 



GULCH- OR PLACER-MINING. ^43 

found on any hill in which valuable mines slumber, and 
the elements gradually decompose it until it separates the 
particles of gold from the flint or iron that holds it captive, 
and its specific gravity forces it not only down into the 
gulch, but down through the earth to the very bottom or 
bed-rock of the ravine. This gold, coming as it does from 
decomposed rock, is entirely "free gold," and has no mix- 
ture of the base metals, so that no peculiar scientific attain- 
ments are requisite to master it. Its existence in a gulch 
is easily ascertained by the simplest implements. A spade, 
pick, and pan are all that the prospector requires. His pan 
is made of sheet-iron, and holds about a peck. The centre 
of the course of the washing is found, the pan half filled 
with the earth, and it is washed out by dipping and whirl- 
ing the pan in water until the loose earth escapes with the 
water, while the gold, iron, and pebbles remain. All the 
science necessary to save gulch-gold is the appreciation of 
the fact that gold is the heaviest of all substances in the 
earth, and will always attain the loAvest point it can find. 
As the earth is whirled around in the water, the gold 
gradually settles to the bottom of the pan, and, when there 
is no more earth to wash out, the pebbles are picked out. 
A little pocket-magnet, stirred around in the pan, will take 
out all the iron by adhesion, and leave the pure gold or 
"dust." This dust varies in value according to its fineness ; 
and its marketable price is from twelve to nineteen dollars 
per ounce (troy) in gold coin. The lowest standard of 
" dust" has some silver mixed with it; but different gulches 
will produce gold ranging in degrees of fineness as much 
as twenty per cent. Any expert dealer in gold in estab- 
lished mining-regions can, at a glance, usually tell the 
gulch from Avhich any lot of dust has been taken. In the 
early settlement of all mining-countries, gold is the only 
legal tender in all business transactions, unless there is a 



344 ffOW MINERS 3IAKF LAWS. 

special contract for currency. Every man carries a buck- 
skin purse, and when he buys anything, from a plug of to- 
bacco to a gold-mine, the dust is weighed out in payment 
at its standard value per ounce. 

The various methods for separating the gold from the 
earth of the gulches are all exceedingly simple while the 
first placer-miners are working it. They usually make 
their own " district laws," the district embracing any par- 
ticular camp or gulch. They meet in mass council, and 
adopt their code, their land-laws, their water-laws, and all 
needful regulations for their enforcement. The local or 
district laws have always been respected, both by Terri- 
torial and Congressional enactments, — so that no better 
primary title can be procured than a clear title under the 
district laws. When disputes arise, they try titles to 
claims or water either by a jury or by general meeting, as 
may be the adopted custom ; and from the decision of the 
district tribunal there is no appeal. Indeed, to demur is 
not often even safe. The dreaded tribunal of Judge Lynch 
is certain to be invoked by attempted resistance to the 
judgment of the local court. 

The claims are usually parceled in lots of one hundred 
or two hundred feet in length, up and down the gulch, and 
embracing its entire width. The local laws are scrupu- 
lously careful to prevent monopoly of water, and it is econ- 
omized, if scarce, so as to afford the greatest advantage to 
all. Each owner, or owners, of a claim (they generally 
mine and cabin in couples) erects a flume, or digs a ditch, 
through which to wash the dirt of his claim from each side 
down to the depth of the bed-rock. Their labor consists 
in simply digging the earth loose, and shoveling it into the 
ditch or flume, through which it is washed away, while a 
portion — usually about one-half — of the gold is saved by 
various contrivances. Sometimes the bottom of the flume 



WASHING THE ^' PAY-DIRT." 345 

is made of a thick plank, into which arc bored a number 
of large auger-holes, just deep enough not to go through. 
The " pay-dirt" is washed down over this perforated board, 
and a very large proportion of the gold will lodge in the 
holes. They will, of course, first fill up with sand ; but 
the gold will find the least depression in the surface over 
which it is passing, and work down through the sand and 
earth to the bottom of the holes. At the foot of the sluice 
or flume a cross-piece is usually placed, about an inch thick, 
to make a ripple; and sometimes cross-pieces are placed at 
every ten or twenty feet, so that the earth passes over a 
succession of ripples. The ripples lodge a quantity of the 
earth, the gold sinks down in it to the bottom, and there 
remains until there is a clean-up. Sometimes small boxes 
are placed at the end of the ditch or flume, Into which the 
water and earth empty, and, while the earth washes out by 
the continuous current, the gold lodges safely in the bot- 
tom. In some instances a quantity of quicksilver is poured 
into the boxes to amalgamate the gold. The finest particle 
of gold, unless covered with iron, will amalgamate with 
the mercury at once, and cannot be separated from it until 
the mercury is strained out through buckskin. Copper 
plates, amalgamated with quicksilver, are also sometimes 
used in gulch-mining, but not generally. The bottom of 
the flume is covered with copper, and the copper coated 
completely with quicksilver; the earth is then washed 
over it, and fine particles of gold will amalgamate on the 
plate. When the general clean-up is made — usually once in 
one or two weeks — the various boxes, ripples, holes, etc. 
for catching the gold are emptied, and " panned out," by 
washing the earth and gravel away, and the pure gold Avill 
be found in the bottom of the pan. 

The gulch-miners work their claims very imperfectly. 
It is deemed a safe calculation that they leave quite as 

30* 



3 4 G Q UA R TZ-MTNINO. 

much in the earth as they extract, and more systematic 
men with heavy capital follow them, buy up the abandoned 
claims for miles together, and sometimes concentrate a 
whole gulch in one company. They often bring water for 
miles by flumes, and cut a bed-rock flume the whole length 
of their claims, through which they conduct a strong 
stream of water. Into this they throw the whole earth of 
the gulch, and often bring down the whole hill-sides into 
the flume by hydraulic power. They save the gold as the 
earth passes through the flume, on the same principles as 
their predecessors did, only with much more system and 
completeness. This secondary process of gulch-mining is 
just now in its zenith in Montana, and this year it will 
yield millions of gold. 

But the most important and permanent mining-interest 
is the reduction of gold and silver quartz, and the separa- 
tion of the precious metals from the rock. I have seen 
this process from the mines to the retort, both in Colorado 
and Montana; and it is a study that must interest any ob- 
server. The gold and silver mines do not difi'er essentially 
from the general laws which govern mineral and coal 
leads in the States, and they are worked in the same 
manner. When opened properly, they are clearly defined 
as a rule, have fixed walls with regular pitches, and can 
be followed by experienced men with great certainty. In 
most of the mines practical Cornishmen direct the devel- 
opment of the leads. Shafts are sunk about six feet square, 
usually on the leads, the sides well timbered, and when a 
certain depth is attained — from forty to sixty feet — a 
level is run both ways from the shafts, and all the ore 
above the level is " stoped out." Instead of working 
down from the top, the miners work up from the bottom. 
They run a '' drift" from the bottom of the shaft out under 
the ore as far as may be expedient, make a floor of firm 



FOUL AIR AND WATER. 347 

timbers, so as to protect them when they make their next 
level below, and then dig or blast the ore down overhead. 
They select the ore from the rock and earth as it falls 
down, and wheel it out to the shaft for hoisting- up, while 
the refuse drops under their feet and keeps them up to 
their stope all the time. When they have worked up as 
far as there is ore, they go down with their shaft twenty 
or forty feet more, drift out again, timber as before, and 
then stope up to the floor of the first level, and so on in- 
definitely. The miners work day and night in " shifts," 
changing from day- to night-work every one or two weeks. 
There is no day in the mines : night is perpetual. They 
work by the light of sperm candles, and for a candlestick 
they use a lump of soft kneaded clay, in which they imbed 
the lower end of the candle, and they shift it at pleasure 
by sticking the clay against a rock. Wherever it is placed 
it adheres: so that handling, changing, and using this 
light most advantageously involves no trouble. At first 
the ore is hoisted from shafts by a common windlass; but, 
as a greater depth is attained, horse-power is attached 
to a " whim" for the purpose, and often steam-engines 
are used. Foul air is always encountered more or less 
as shafts descend. As long as the miner's candle will 
burn brightly, he can feel sure that the air is pure ; but 
when it burns in a sickly manner or goes out, he is ad- 
monished of the danger. The engine is then employed to 
force a current of fresh air through pipes to the bottom 
of the shaft, and the foul air is driven out. Water is 
sometimes very troublesome in shafts, and pumps have to 
be worked by steam to keep it out of the way of the 
miners. The better method of mining, where the mines 
lie in hills, is by tunnels, — horizontal shafts run into the 
ground from the hill-side until the lead is struck. The 
earth is run out on a little hand-car and dumped down at 



348 SELECTING QUARTZ. 

the mouth of the tunnel. When quartz is found, the miners 
work up from the tunnel, as they stope out a level in a 
shaft, and car out only the valuable ore. Water cannot 
impede mining by tunnel, as it drains all the water to the 
mouth, and air-chambers are also placed in the bottom of 
the tunnel, and sometimes above also, by which pure air 
can be preserved to a great depth. When the tunnel be- 
comes too deep for supplying pure air from the mouth, an 
air-shaft is worked up perpendicularly to the surface. A 
constant current of air is thus secured, and the tunnel can 
then be driven for hundreds of feet again. The miners 
not only dig the ore, but they select it carefully from the 
granite. An experienced miner will distinguish quartz as 
soon as he gets his hands on it, and needs no particular 
examination to determine its quality. He is familiar with 
the peculiarities of the lead he is working, and can tell at 
once whether a rock is granite or first- or second-class 
quartz. This requires considerable practical experience. 
I have seen gold-quartz of every conceivable color and 
formation, — white crystal, cold gray, all shades of blue, 
yellow, and pink, and every shade of dark to jet-black. 
Quartz is usually very rich when gold can be detected in 
it with the naked eye. Miners understand what particu- 
lar formations carry the gold ; and they seldom err in 
estimating its value. In sulphurets the iron will glisten 
with a brilliancy that makes any inexperienced observer 
pronounce it gold ; but the gold is infused in the iron in 
very fine particles, and seldom can be seen at all. Occa- 
sionally nugget-gold will be found in quartz ; but it is only 
in rare specimens of uncommon richness that the gold ap- 
pears in that way. The average cost of mining ore in 
Colorado I would estimate at five dollars per ton. In 
Montana it costs probably eight dollars per ton ; but its 
development will be cheajiened as it is systematized. 



CRUSHING THE ORES. 349 

When the ore is mined, it is delivered to the mill either 
by wagons or railways, where it is broken about as fine as 
stone is usually broken on a good turnpike road. This is 
sometimes done by a machine, called a ''cracker;" but 
usually by hand with the common sledge. It is then 
ready for crushing; and the process in most general use 
is the stamp-mill. Each mill has from two to six "bat- 
teries;" each battery having five stamps, which consist of 
heavy, round bars of iron, set perpendicularly, widening at 
the bottom, on which is fitted a steel shoe. Beneath the 
shoe is a steel die, firmly imbedded, on which the stamp 
drops. It is hoisted by each revolution of the machinery 
to a certain point, whirling partly around as it hoists; 
and its force consists simply in the drop of its weight 
upon the die. Each battery is surrounded with an iron 
frame or box, into which the ore is thrown and a strong 
stream of water pours constantly. On the outer side of 
the battery, the water issues through a screen or sieve, and 
with it is carried the fine quartz as it is pulverized, so that 
feeding goes on constantly to supply the place of the fine 
quartz as it escapes. In the battery is placed a quantity 
of quicksilver, with which a large proportion of the gold 
amalgamates as the rock is crushed, and is held there until 
the "clean-up." Many particles of the gold, however, 
escape with the fine quartz through the screen before it is 
brought in contact with the mercury ; and, in order to 
catch it, the water and quartz from the latter are run over 
copper plates, from two to four feet wide, and ten to twenty 
in length, amalgamated with quicksilver. If the plate is 
properly coated, every particle of free gold will reach the 
bed of the plate in passing over it, and safely lodge in the 
mercury; but, if the gold is impregnated with the base 
metals, it will not amalgamate with the mercury. It will 
pass over the plates and sink in the boxes or ripples (such 



350 WORKING SULPHURETS. 

as are used in gulch-mining, and before described), while 
the light earth and sand will wash away. These mixtures 
of gold with the base metals are called sulphurets ; and 
they have been worked successfully in Montana thus far by 
arastras or barrels. An arastra is simply a carefully-laid 
bed of stone, about eight or ten feet in diameter, encircled 
with a wooden rim ; an upright shaft stands in the centre, 
with two arms extending out, to each of which is attached 
a heavy rock with a smooth under-face. It is so attached 
as to be raised a little in front, while the main weight of 
the rock drags on the stone floor. Into this bed from three 
to five hundred pounds or more of sulphurets are thrown, 
quicksilver is added, and a stream of water is turned on to 
it. A mule is hitched to the shaft on a floor above, and 
he drags the headstones around over the sulphurets until 
they are pulverized into almost impalpable powder ; and 
then they are panned out, just as prospecters pan earth in 
gulches, or sluiced off over amalgamated plates. Some 
stamp-mills have metal pans, in which their tailings, or 
sulphurets, are worked on the principle of the arastra ; and 
other mills have wrought-iron barrels about three feet in 
diameter, and five feet long, in which are half a dozen or 
more large metal balls. The sulphurets are put in the bar- 
rels, about three hundred pounds to each, and the barrels 
run about twenty revolutions per minute. The constant 
shifting of the tailings and rolling of the balls rapidly re- 
duce the base metals and separate the gold, which amal- 
gamates with the mercury mixed with it in the barrels. 
By these dilferent processes the mills are usually run 
about twenty-four hours on a charge ; and then the results 
are sluiced off and panned out by the ordinary panning 
process. In Colorado the gold is mainly found so mixed 
with the base metals as to defy reduction and amalgama- 
tion ; hence the signal failure of mining-operations there 



CHILIAN MILLS. 351 

thus far ; but this season will, I believe, thoroughly master 
their most refractory ores, and enable that rich Territory 
to resume its former yield of millions annually. In Mon- 
tana the ores have thus far been easily mastered. An- 
other process for crushing the ores is the Chilian mill, — 
consisting of heavy metal pans, five feet in diameter, in 
which massive metal wheels revolve, weighing from one 
to two tons each. A current of water flows constantly 
into each pan, the main body of the gold is amalgamated 
with the mercury in the pans, and the fine quartz issues 
through screens over amalgamated plates, just as in stamp- 
mills. This process of crushing is, I think, preferable to 
that of the stamp-mills, and will do more work with less 
power and wear and tear of machinery; but it requires 
more care and skill in its use, and for that reason is not so 
acceptable. There are no other processes for crushing 
ores that have attained any measure of confidence ; but 
there are innumerable patents for separating the gold after 
the ore is crushed. Silver-ores are usually roasted before 
crushing; and gold-ores intermixed with silver are also 
improved for reduction by roasting. Silver-ores contain- 
ing forty per cent, or more of lead can be reduced readily 
by smelting, as the lead serves to flux the ore ; but if less 
than forty per cent, of lead is found in it, it cannot be 
smelted in this section so as to pay. Lead is worth from 
thirty to seventy cents per pound, and salt ten dollars per 
hundred pounds. The ingredients are too costly as yet 
for the reduction of any other than the galena silvei*- 
ores, excepting by the ordinary crushing and amalga- 
mating process in use to produce free gold. In Colorado 
some of their refractory ores are smelted, and the gold, 
silver, copper, etc. all run out in bars together and then 
shipped to Swansea for separation; but I do not know 
the measure of success that has attended the efl'ort. The 



352 AMALGAM. 

Consolidated Gregory Company of Colorado is working 
by this process, but has as yet paid no dividends. 

After a run has been made in a quartz-mill (usually from 
one to three weeks), they clean up. The batteries or pans 
are run down low, and then the mercury and remaining 
fine quartz scooped out for the process of panning. A 
small pan is filled with the quartz and quicksilver out of 
the battery, and whirled around in the water until the sand 
and earth are washed out, and nothing but the mercury 
(holding the gold) and heavy sulphurets remain. The 
quicksilver is then poured out from under the particles of 
ore and iron, a magnet is run through it to separate the 
particles of pure iron, and the residue, which contains gold 
in iron, is pulverized in a hard mortar, and what little gold 
can be saved is gathered in mercury. The amalgamated 
plates, over which the pulverized ore has been passed, are 
then carefully scraped with square pieces of rubber, and 
the gold (mixed with mercury) is added to the mercury 
from the batteries. The tailings caught in the boxes and 
ripples are then emptied, to be worked over in an arastra 
or barrels. The quicksilver gathered from the plates and 
batteries then contains all the gold saved by the run ; but 
the gold is in invisible particles in the mercury. The mer- 
cury is then strained out of the gold through buckskin, 
leaving so many ounces of " amalgam" as the clean-up. 
The amalgam is worth from five to seven dollars per ounce, 
depending upon the fine or the coarse quality of the gold 
— the gold that is coarsest in its particles being the most 
valuable, as the mercury can be better strained out of it. 

The amalgam is about the consistency of thick meal 
mush, and nearly the same color, — the gold giving the mer- 
cury a soft, yellow color. It has yet to be retorted before 
it is pure gold. The amalgam is placed in a little iron box, 
much like a brick-mould, full of fine needle-holes. The box 



THE BRICK OF GOLD. 353 

is so constructed as to allow the lid to be pressed down 
with clamps and screws until the amalgam is compressed 
in the smallest possible space. It is then set inside of an- 
other iron box, three times its size, and a lid fitted on it 
perfectly air-tight, by means of clay joints. In the top of 
the larger box there is a hole, probably an inch in diameter, 
to which is attached a pipe that comes down to the leyel 
of the bottom of the box, at a distance of probably three 
feet. The box is then set in a small furnace, and the end 
of the pipe placed in a tub of water. A hot fire is made 
around the box until it is heated to a red heat, when 
the heat evaporates the quicksilyer, in the inner box, 
through the needle-holes into the larger box, whence it 
escapes as yapor through the pipe into the water, where 
it congeals, and is found in the bottom of the tub, pure 
quicksilyer again. This heat is continued until all the 
quicksilyer is eyaporated from the gold and congealed 
in the tub, when the box is taken out, cooled, opened, 
and in the inner box will be found a little brick, probably 
half the size of an ordinary building-brick, the fruits of 
mining, hauling, stamping, panning, etc. twenty, forty, or, 
it may be, one hundred tons of ore. The brick is assayed 
to ascertain its actual value, and is then ready for coining, 
or for manufacture into any of the thousands of articles for 
which gold is used In this patient, laborious manner, this 
country is now producing from seventy to one hundred 
millions of the precious metals annually, at as little profit 
just now, taken as a whole, as any other branch of indus- 
try can complain of; but ten years hence the yield should 
be nearly double, without a material increase in the gross 
cost of its production. 

31 



LETTER XXXYIIL 

The Indian Question. — Failure of the Indian Campaign. — The 
Military Expeditions fruitless. — Fearful Extent of Savagery 
on the Plains. — Five Thousand Whites murdered in a Year. — 
Official Libels upon the People of the West. — The Military and 
Indian Agents the Great Obstacles to Peace. — No Peaceable In- 
dians on the Plains. — What Professed Peaceable Indians do. — 
The Butchers of Fort Phil. Kearney in Council with the Mili- 
tary. — No Demand for Punishment. — The Crows and Black- 
feet. — The Struggle between the Indian and the White Man. — 
How Civilization is arrested by the Savage. — The Pioneers 
will advance, whether protected or not. — How to avert Exter- 
mination. — Abolish Agencies. — Cease treating with Indians. — 
Choose Competent Military Commanders. — Select Western 
Troops to fight Hostile Tribes. — Proposed Surrender of the 
Bozeman Koute a Crime. — Manifest Destiny. 

Union City, Montana Terr., October 21, 1867. 
Between confused and conflicting telegraphic reports 
from the Plains, letters from army correspondents in the 
field with Terry, Augur, and Hancock, and official reports 
of military commanders, commissioners, agents, and con- 
tractors, the ''Tribune" confesses to a want of proper un- 
derstanding of the Indian question. As it is seldom that 
any two reports, letters, or official opinions agree, it is most 
natural that the public should almost despair of any happy 
solution of this vexed problem. I do not assume to under- 
stand it better than generals and others who are presumed 
to have the very best facilities for comprehending it ; but 
some things are patent to all Western residents, who have 
(354) 



FAILURE OF THE INDIAN CAMPAIGNS. 355 

every interest in peace, and from that stand-point I shall 
write. 

Some things relating to what is called the Indian war, 
the public, East and West, cannot fail to understand. It 
is known to all that General Sherman has had ten thou- 
sand troops on the Plains and Upper Missouri since April 
last ; that they are costing the government probably five 
hundred thousand dollars a week; that no battle has been 
fought with the hostile tribes ; that no thoroughfare has 
been protected, and that, relying upon the proffered pro- 
tection of the army, hundreds of emigrants and settlers 
have fallen victims to the scalping-knife. So much has 
passed into history, and must be familiar to all intelligent 
readers. How many lives have been thus wantonly sacri- 
ficed, the nation will never know. Most of them have 
fallen without survivors to tell the story of their sad fate. 
-I notice that Governor Crawford, of Kansas, estimates the 
butcheries of settlers and emigrants during the past year 
at five thousand ; and the calculation has been received in 
the East with general distrust. Those who have spent 
any considerable time in the West have good reason to 
know that the number given is not too large. I do not 
take up a paper published between the Plains and Oregon 
that does not record some fiendish savagery of the Indians ; 
and there is hardly a cabin on the Platte or the Smoky 
Hill route that has not the memory of the slain interwoven 
with its history. 

The people of the Far West have good reason to feel 
sorely aggrieved by the persistent and often malicious mis- 
representations of their actions and purposes. They, as a 
rule, have to suffer exposure to the scalping-knife, and are 
generally rewarded for their heroism and sacrifices by stu- 
died calumny. The people of the Far West are not Indian 
traders, Indian speculators, or Indian thieves. They open 



356 INDIAN AGENTS AN OBSTACLE TO PEACE. 

mines and gather harvests after patient toil and incalcula- 
ble privations ; and of all men they most desire peace with 
the savage. But they have no official relations with the 
government ; and, when their voices are raised in obedience 
to the law of self-preservation, there are swarms of govern- 
ment officials, known as Indian agents, — but, as a class, mere 
Indian speculators and thieves, — who are prompt to falsify 
the condition and perils of the pioneers, and their influence 
has been fearfully potential in controlling the Indian policy 
of the government. They are always on the ground, always 
ready to propose a treaty, and have chiefs trained to play 
the proper part to betray the authorities into a fresh supply 
of arms and ammunition and thus inaugurate a series of 
fresh murders. They have millions at stake. They can 
afford to pay well — and do pay well — to subsidize govern- 
ment officials to let this carnival of blood go on. Every 
fresh outbreak is imputed to the perfidy of the whites, 
and the end is compensation for Indian atrocities and in- 
creased annuities for agents to steal. Turn to an official 
report made to the government in July or August last, in 
which an army-officer declared that the Indians of the 
Plains had been peaceable, and faithfully observed their 
treaties, until the Bozeman or Powder River route was 
opened against their protest in the summer of 1866. As 
that officer was on the Plains, he cannot plead igliorance 
in extenuation of his falsehoods. To say that he is a sim- 
pleton would be the sublimity of charity; for he must have 
seen the rude graves, for three hundred miles, of the vic- 
tims of the Indian butchery of Januar}^, 1865. The Platte 
route was raided from Living Spring — fifty miles east of 
Denver — almost to the Missouri ; and, when the savages 
had completed their bloody march, the garrison at Fort 
Sedgwick remained almost alone on the entire line, and the 
village of Julesburg was burned and the settlers murdered 



NO FRIENDLY INDIANS ON THE PLAINS. 357 

under the very guns of the fort. Hollen Godfrey (" Old 
Wicked") was the only ranchman who successfully defended 
his home. For six weeks no mails passed over the route, and 
all the settlers, with the exception of a very few who made 
miraculous escapes by flight, were killed, scalped, and ter- 
ribly mutilated, and their wives and daughters reserved 
for a still more horrible captivity. At that time the Pow- 
der River route had not been opened or garrisoned by the 
government. A few emigrants had passed over it and had 
maintained friendly relations with the Indians. No pre- 
tense of bad faith on the part of the government or emi- 
grants was heard of; yet the Indians, in violation of their 
treaties, swept the Plains, in January, 1865, from the 
mountains to the Little Blue, when there was not a white 
man between Laramie and the Gallatin. The official re- 
port made last summer, stating that the Indians were wan- 
"tonly provoked to hostilities by the government taking 
possession of the Powder River route, was, therefore, 
deliberately false; for the author could not have been 
mistaken, and in no way can it be reconciled with integ- 
rity. 

I beg to impress this important and, to Western men, 
self-evident truth upon your readers and the national au- 
thorities, — that there are no friendly Indians on the Plains. 
There has been no peace since the settlement of Colorado, 
although hostile tribes have not confederated to make war 
until recently. There is not a single nomadic tribe east 
of the mountains that is at heart friendly with the whites, 
— not one that does not, when opportunity is offered with 
apparent safety, steal, and murder if necessary, and often 
murder wantonly. The Utes, Crows, and some others 
are the implacable foes of the Sioux and Cheyennes. 
They have no traditions of peace between their tribes, 
and they hate each other with a hatred more deadly than 

31* 



358 • THE CHIVINGTON MASSACRE. 

they can cherish for the whites. The so-called peaceable 
tribes are, therefore, only those who are in perpetual, ex- 
terminating strife with the tribes openly at war with the 
government. There were no peaceable tribes in the 
mountains, or on the Pacific slopes, until they were taught 
submission by the most relentless warfare. Wassakie's 
little band at Fort Bridger is peaceable ; but he mourns 
more than half his warriors slain in battle. The Ban- 
nocks and Snakes were taught peace by bloody discom- 
fiture, leaving them only the alternative of peace or 
extermination. The battalions and batteries of Harney 
and Conner persuaded the fragments of these tribes to 
bow to the progress of the pale-faces. White Antelope, 
who was killed with most of his band at Sand Creek by 
Colonel Chivington, was professedly at peace with the 
whites. I do not believe that he meant to be at war. I 
cannot justify the indiscriminate massacre of his band, 
nor do the people of Colorado ; for that massacre blasted 
all Colonel Chivington's political aspirations. But of the 
more than a dozen of credible men I have met personally, 
who participated in that affair, every one has assured me 
that they found many white female scalps in possession of 
the dead, and every species of plunder taken from the 
whites. They were, in the government sense, peaceable 
Indians ; but among them, with the knowledge of all, were 
the most remorseless murderers, who were shielded by 
Antelope and his followers. Spotted Tail and his band 
are peaceable, in the popular acceptation of the term ; but 
General Sherman must know — for General Augur is my 
authority for saying it — that in his band are a number who 
participated in the Fort Phil. Kearney massacre. No de- 
mand is made upon him for the delivery of the savages 
who butchered and mutilated, too horribly to mention, the 
captives from that ill-fated garrison. He was recently in 



THE CROWS AND THE BLAOKFEET. 359 

council with General Sherman, and demanded and received 
powder and ball for those murderers as a preliminary to 
peace, — as the beginning of a treaty. Spotted Tail may 
appear to conclude a treaty; but where will be the Phil, 
Kearney savages who have just been freshly supplied with 
arms and ammunition by General Sherman? How many 
severed trunks or bleaching skeletons will be found as 
mute but eloquent monuments of this fatal folly ? Gov- 
ernor Smith, of this Territory, assured me a few days ago 
that three of the murderers of Colonel Bozeman came in 
and received their annuities recently at Fort Benton, and 
bore their gifts straightway to the hostile camps. Two of 
them were sons of a chief who professes to be at j^eace 
with the whites. He does the part of diplomacy, while 
his sons and followers rob and butcher. A large portion 
of the annuities received by his tribe go to those who are 
on the war-path; and he shields the fraud and aids the 
merciless enemy. Of course General Smith and his sub- 
ordinates did not know the Bozeman murderers at the 
time ; but nearly or quite every Indian present did know 
them, but all shielded them from detection until they were 
safely in the hostile country. The Crows profess to be at 
peace. The Sioux are their conquerors, and they hate 
them. While they have no love for the whites, they will 
attempt to keep within the pale of peace as long as the 
whites are at war with their enemies. They murdered 
Colonel Bozeman, and hundreds of others have fallen to 
glut their thirst for the blood of the whites. The Black- 
feet have committed numerous and most atrocious murders 
in Montana this season. In one instance they butchered 
a man on the highway to Fort Benton. They, too, are at 
peace ; but no murderer of the whites can be brought to 
justice by their aid or with their approval. Of all the In- 
dians on the plains the Sioux and Cheyennes are the no- 



360 NO PEACE WITH THE INDIAN. 

blest; and the only chief who possesses any of the tradi- 
tionary chivalry of the red man is Red Cloud. The Sioux 
and Chej^ennes proclaim war : they confess that there can 
be no peace between the tribes of the Plains and the pale- 
faces, and they profess what the}^ practice, — war to the 
death. Red Cloud refused to join in the treaty at Laramie 
in 1866. He said that the Indians must fight successfully 
or starve by submission, for the whites would soon destroy 
all their game. He declared extermination to be prefera- 
ble to submission; and he brandishes his blade for a 
struggle in which he expects to fall, and thereby reach the 
fabled hunting grounds, — the Indian's future resting-place. 
He is the master-spirit, the controlling genius, of the war ; 
and while he lives the whites will have an open, deadly 
foe. 

The Indian, in his nomadic state, must henceforth be at 
war with the white man ; and one or the other must re- 
cede. The time was when he could be at peace, when his 
hunting grounds were not encroached upon by the march 
of civilization, and he met his rivals only on his borders 
to traffic with them. Now the surges of progress break 
upon his buffalo and deer from both the Atlantic and the 
Pacific. Railroads are soon to unite the East and the West 
in iron bonds. The miner and the ranchman are in almost 
every valley and gulch of the mountains, laying the foun- 
dations for future empires ; and the Indian must conform 
to civilization, or pass away before the inexorable logic of 
events. He will not civilize : must all civilization there- 
fore be arrested in the heart of the continent ? If so, the 
sentimentalism of many Eastern journals, the imbecility 
that has marked our recent military campaigns, and the 
teachings of the swindling agents, whose richest profits 
are crimsoned with the blood of the pioneers, are leading 
the government wisely. If not, fresh graves will cease to 



THE PIONEER WILL ADVANCE. 361 

ridge the Plains, and peace will come only when such 
councils and counselors are discarded. The military com- 
mander who hopes to plant the hostile tribes between the 
mountains and the Missouri in peace knows nothing of 
the people, resources, or destiny of the Great West. The 
savage must leave it, or die. So fate has written, in char- 
acters so legible that "the wayfaring man, though a fool," 
should understand them, and so enduring that all the 
power of the government cannot efface them. Already 
the miner is in the Wind Kiver, the Big Horn, the Yel- 
lowstone, and the Muscleshell ranges. The iron horse 
will soon be at Cheyenne, and settlements and camps will 
move northward. From the Upper Missouri the tide of 
empire is westward ; and a mail-route now traverses the 
northern portion of Montana, with the Mississippi as its 
starting-point. In less than another decade, the Northern 
Pacific Railroad will connect St. Paul with Puget Sound, 
and whirl passengers from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
thirty hours earlier than can the Central ; and the com- 
merce of the ancient empires will pass through these 
mountain-valleys and gorges to our centres of trade and 
to Europe. The most salubrious climate of the North is 
on this line. The buffalo migrates northward from the 
Platte to the genial winters and succulent grasses of the 
Yellowstone. West of the Rocky range the Missoula 
Yalle}^ yields the finest vegetables, fruits, and field-crops. 
On its direct line eastward is almost a continuous succes- 
sion of the most fruitful valleys, from the Missoula, by 
water-grade, to the Deer Lodge ; thence to the Big Hole 
over to the range by almost imperceptible grade; then to 
the Jefferson, which joins the Gallatin at the head of the 
Missouri ; thence up the Gallatin to the Yellowstone, and 
onward to the eastern tide of civilization from the Mis- 
souri and the Platte. Nor will the scream of the locomo- 



362 TREACHERY OF THE INDIAN. 

tive be unanswered, as it annihilates time and space in its 
westward flight. On the eastern slope of the mountains 
his iron track will be laid, and the Montana transit will 
fly along the foot-hills to the Gallatin or the Prickly Pear. 
In this region are the most productive valleys, the finest 
pasturage, numerous mountain-streams, rich mineral de- 
posits, and the best timber on the eastern plains. To pos- 
sess and improve these varied sources of wealth, pioneers 
are streaming from the Missouri and from the mountains. 
It is the progress of destiny ; and no interest of the bar- 
barian can arrest it. Our government should soon learn, 
what every day has been teaching with increased emphasis 
each year, that, with or without its aid, the settler will 
reap golden harvests in that region, and pass over the 
graves of his fallen but ever-avenged comrades, until he 
adds fresh stars to the galaxy of States. He will not 
found empire upon wrong. It will be the well-earned tri- 
umph over wrong, over unyielding barbarism and studied 
atrocity. The Indian has become the foe of peace, the foe 
of humanity, the foe of civilization. He might have abided 
with and acquired all with profit, and preserved his race 
indefinitely; but every effort to better his condition has 
been responded to with savage treachery and with defi- 
ance of all the instincts of chivalry and mercy. His chief 
ambition is not merely to murder alike innocent and guilty, 
friend and foe, but he is master of the most exquisite tor- 
tures to practice upon his victims. He dooms his female 
captives to wrongs so cruel that language is beggared to 
portray them ; and his proudest trophies are the silken 
tresses of the wives and daughters of the pale-faces. 
With them his dusky bride is ever wooed triumphantly. 
I do not delineate isolated characters among the sons 
of the forest, upon whom the blissfull}'' ignorant muse has 
wasted so much sweetness. All are cruel, barbarous, 



AGENCIES SHOULD BE ABOLISHED. 363 

treacherous, thriftless, — at war with every principle of 
enlightened progress and every advance of Christian 
civilization. 

Do not understand me as assuming that extermination is 
the only remedy. The government, by its persistent folly, 
may make that the only remedy, by making it the only 
safety of the settlers ; but it should not be so. If Sherman 
commands on the Plains, calls councils to threaten the 
savages in words they well know to be meaningless, and 
closes with the distribution of powder and ball, extermina- 
tion will come. The army will not accomplish it by deeds 
of valor, but will be the chief agency in making it imper- 
ative. If the festering sores, in the shape of Indian agents, 
which are polluting both the savages and every channel of 
power within their reach, are permitted to remain, exter- 
mination is inevitable. But if a wise, honest policy is 
adopted and firmly maintained, the Indian will live and 
the white man will have peace. To effect this, there must 
be radical changes. 

First. The whole system of Indian agencies must be 
swept away. With one accord they espouse the cause of 
the savage to plunder him. They are, as a class, pestifer- 
ous thieves and heartless falsifiers, and are justly respon- 
sible for half the graves which dot the Plains. They violate 
the faith of the government to increase their peculations, 
and encourage war to plunder both camps. They know 
that Indian wars, so far, have been but appalling murders 
on the part of the savages, resulting in increased annuities 
for them to steal. They are the great curse of the West, 
and .have become a blistering stain upon our national repu- 
tation. 

Second. The government should cease to propose coun- 
cils or treaties with the Indians of the Plains. They are 
common enemies, and have forfeited all rights by their 



364 TREATIES SHOULD CEASE. 

proverbial inhumanity. They believe that the govern- 
ment fears them, and they have no respect for treaty obli- 
gations. They meet generals, but feel not their swords. 
They see armies marshaled against them in grand array, 
but they evade them until they can be murdered in detail. 
They violate treaties whenever want or revenge demands 
it, and have thus far, in this war, been well paid for every 
fresh atrocity. Why, therefore, should they observe faith? 
Why should they respect and fear the government? For 
each Indian that has fallen they have scalped ten of Sher- 
man's warriors, and a score of emigrants and settlers be- 
sides. The government can have peace only by determin- 
ing on its policy and then firmly enforcing it with liberality 
and humanity, as becomes a great government. It must re- 
gard them as subject to its will, and not as a treaty-making 
power; for the Indian is a barbarian, and a stranger to the 
responsibilities imposed by treaties. The government must 
dete7^mine, not propose, the solution of this vexed ques- 
tion, whose history is so fearfully stained with innocent 
blood. The Indians should be told that they must sur- 
render the Plains, and remove south, to a genial climate, 
where cattle and corn can be raised in the midst of their 
idleness. They should be sent where civilization will not 
encroach upon them, and there let them be the recipients 
of any measure of governmental beneficence. No councils 
should be held with them, except to notify them of the pur- 
pose of the government and the period alloAved for their 
removal. Let them understand that refusal will be war, 
and war in their own way, until there is submission. What 
I mean by war in their own way is not a premium for 
" scalps with the ears on," but that every violation of hu- 
mane warfare shall be fearfully atoned for by any of the 
guilty tribe that may be captured, and that Western troops 
shall be their foes in battle. The Indian will then obey, 



WESTERN TROOPS SHOULD BE PREFERRED. 365 

and will live until his natural debaucheries obliterate this 
blot upon mankind. 

Tlm^d. Send competent military men, who have some 
sympathy with the struggling pioneers of civilization, to 
enforce the policy of the government. Send General Phil. 
Sheridan, General Conner, and General Harney to declare 
to the Indians the purposes of the government, and they 
will understand what it means. They will be treated hu- 
manely, and, as a rule, will go in peace. When they are 
fixed upon their reservations, let the Indian Bureau be 
transferred to the War Department, and there will be 
direct responsibility and justice to all. 

Fourth. If any Indians refuse to leave the Plains, do 
not repeat the costly and bloody farce of sending regular 
troops to enforce obedience. After a generous policy has 
been proffered them, let each Western State or Territory 
be authorized to raise the number of troops necessary to 
clear the savages from its borders. The cost will not 
be one dollar for ten required to perform the same task 
with the regular army. The Indians will not wait for the 
advent of the mountain-troops : they will go ; for their 
choice will be to go or die. There will be no Sherman 
pow-wows; no silly pleadings; no idle threats; no distri- 
bution of ammunition to conciliate them. It will be war 
from the start, and war in earnest, — just what the Indians 
cannot endure. For every act of inhumanity to a prisoner 
there will be terrible retribution. Less than four hundred 
Montana volunteers protected the whole eastern border of 
the settlements last summer. The Gallatin Valley is the 
most jfruitful in Montana, and it swarms with the finest 
stock. It is but a few miles from the hostile country, 
separated by a low mountain-range, through which there 
are many passes ; but the settlers were safe, for no hostile 
Indian could enter the valley and hope to escape with his 

32 



366 THE BOZEiMAN ROUTE. 

life. Nor did the duties of these volunteers end with pro- 
tecting one hundred miles of exposed borders. Fort Smith, 
with its garrison of nearly two hundred men, was besieged 
by the savages. Captain De Lacy, with forty-five mount- 
ain-volunteers, marched two hundred and fifty miles through 
the hostile country with a train for the relief of the fort. 
The savages could not surprise him, they dared not fight 
him, and they allowed him to go and return in peace. The 
Indian wants no war with the mountain-volunteers, each 
of whom has some murdered comrade to avenge. 

The proposed surrender of the Bozeman or Powder River 
route as an Indian reservation w^ould be a stupendous 
folly : worse — it would be a crime. Those who have ad- 
vised its abandonment either want a war of extermination 
or know nothing of the value of the route. Those who say 
it is not needed have studied the West to little purpose, or 
belong to the white vampires of the Plains. It is the 
natural route to Montana, and the only practicable route 
overland. By it Montana is reached without crossing the 
Rocky range ; by the other overland routes south the 
mountains must be crossed twice. It traverses the eastern 
base of the mountains, has fine streams and pasturage, and 
is the only route that has those priceless advantages. It 
will not only be the great highway between Montana and 
the East, but it must soon have a profitable railroad to 
connect the rich valleys and mines of this Territory with 
the western centres of trade. Its bountiful crops, precious 
metals, and genial climate will soon make continuous set- 
tlements from the Gallatin until the waves of progress 
from East to West join in the mountain-valleys. No tribe 
can justly claim it. It was stolen by the Crows, and the}^ 
in turn were despoiled by the Sioux. To whom should it 
be given as a reservation? No tribe now in existence 
could get other than the thief's title to it, or claim it on any 



MANIFEST DESTINY. 36 Y 

higher right. No savage now owns it; and it is not only 
absurd, it is simply impossible, to surrender it to the sav- 
age merely because he is a savage. The pioneers of the 
West will open this route, will keep it open, will settle on 
it, will work its mines and reap its harvests, whether the 
government abandons it or not. It is now just enough 
under military control to prevent settlers from protecting 
themselves. The mere abandonment of the forts and route 
by the national authorities would be of little consequence ; 
but the effort to surrender it to the Indians by treaty and 
exclude the whites from it, as has been proposed, would 
be a foolish attempt on the part of the government to do 
an impossible thing. If the government can do no more 
for the people of Montana, let it withdraw from the con- 
test for supremacy on the Plains, and there will be early 
and enduring peace ; for it will be the peace of death to the 
savage. One or the other race must reign here ; both can- 
not. Which it will be, requires no prophetic pen to deter- 
mine. After all our weak and costly diplomacy, the in- 
evitable end will be reached, and the nomadic tribes will 
fade away, either through war or through peace, and leave 
their hunting grounds to make golden fields for their pale- 
faced rivals. 



LETTER XXXIX. 

The Grerman Evangeline. — Komantic Story of a Daughter of the 
Khine. — She finds her Faithful Lover in the Eocky Mountains. 
— A Visit to their Cosy Cabin. — Union City deserted. — Wait- 
ing for News from the Prize-Fight. — Hope deferred. — The 
Donkey Express brings the News. — Indignation of the Bearer 
of Dispatches from the Seat of War. — Con. Orem defeated in 
the Mill. — Tim's Account of the Bruise. — Business is Busi- 
ness in Montana. — Advertisements. — The Chinese in Montana. 
— Peonage among them. — Their Women mere Articles of Com- 
merce. — The Chinese Dead. — All sent Home for Final Burial. 
— A Suspicious Box received from Mormondom. — A Present 
of Delicious Grapes. — Bruin visits Union City. — A Fruitless 
Chase. — A Plentiful Winter. 

Union City, Montana Terr., October 28, 1867. 
You may have read the story of a second Evangeline, 
that went the rounds of the papers last summer, telling 
how a devoted German beauty came, unattended, from 
her far-off European home to find her devoted lover in the 
mountain-fastnesses of Montana. I have seen it copied 
into a dozen Eastern journals to show how romance pales 
before the stranger truths of history in the Far West. It 
told how the '' trysting-place" of the lovers was near to 
" Bingen on the Rhine ;" how the ambitious Teuton gave 
a sad embrace and a long farewell to his aflSanced, as he 
crossed the trackless ocean and traversed the plains and 
bluffs of the new continent in search of the fabled wealth 
of the Rocky Mountains, and how he sighed for his fair 
(368) 



UNION CITY DESERTED. 369 

partner as the melancholy whispers of the pines tuned 
his heart to sadness. Three long, dismal winters whit- 
ened the valleys, silvered the moantain-peaks, and sang 
their hoarse melodies around the cliflfs of Montana, be- 
fore the faithful lovers could again clasp each other in 
their arms. But German love was proof against the 
assaults of time and the fretful anxieties of distance. 
Last spring the daughter of the Rhine started on her 
weary journey, without companionship. Patiently and 
hopefully she crossed the Atlantic, swept westward to 
the Father of Waters, thence threaded more than three 
thousand miles of the angry flood of the Missouri, and at 
last met her faithful bridegroom in Helena, where the 
twain were made one. The story ends in a neat little 
white-washed cabin, close under the grim shadows of 
'' Old Baldy," not two miles distant, where I have vis- 
- ited Lewis Yogel and his happy bride in their mount- 
ain-home. He is superintendent of the Lucas Mining- 
Company, and is a highly-educated and accomplished 
gentleman. 

The quiet, sober ways of Union City were sadly broken 
up on Friday last. It was the day of the prize-fight near 
Virginia, in which my particular friend Con. Orem and 
Jim Dwyer were the heroes of the " mill." What is here 
called the lingering prejudices of early education prevented 
me from witnessing the outpouring of the ''roughs" and 
" sports" of Montana. I had declined the honor of calling 
the time and deciding the complicated questions of the 
ring for the combatants, and had almost forgotten all 
about' it until Friday morning left me deserted. The mines 
were empty, the teams were not visible winding around 
the hills, and only here and there was to be seen a discon- 
solate son of the mountains. They had taken " French 

32* 



3t0 FIRST NEWS FROM THE PRIZE-FIGHT 

leave" as the surest way of getting off, under the leader- 
ship of " Tim," the jolly Irish miner, whose face ever 
flashes sunbeams of genuine Irish wit to break the mo- 
notony of mountain-life. He would miss a meal any time 
to oblige a friend ; but to ask '' Tim" to miss a fight would 
be '' sorrow's crown of sorrow." The fight was to come 
off at noon, and the delegation was expected to return 
early in the evening. Lincoln Avenue, the Broadway of 
Union City, was brilliant until late bedtime, as the 
'' batches" sat about their cheerful pme-fires awaiting news 
from the champions of the manly art. But the long, lin- 
gering twilight at last withdrew its mellow beauties from 
the track of the fugitive sun, and midnight came without 
tidings from the seat of war. One of our restless Penn- 
sylvania boys, who must either have a share of every fight 
or a side bet on the result, finally got twenty-five dollars 
staked on his favorite bruiser, and then turned in for a 
sleepless night. On Saturday the Donkey Express, run 
by the hero of the knife and cleaver, brought us our usual 
supply of steaks, roasts, and pudding; and with it came the 
first news of the " mill" from the still exasperated driver. 
He had been to see the fight ; and, with a degree of dis- 
gust that fearfully taxed his powers of malediction, he 
denounced the whole affair as a stupendous "bilk," — a 
mere swindle to get winter's grub. " Fought two hours,'' 
said he, as he nervously licked his pencil-point to make 
his pass-book entries legible, and fairly hissed his scorn, 
"and nobody hurt! Con.'s eye swollen, his nose knocked 
in a little, and his lip cut — that's all ; and Dwyer hadn't a 
bit of blood about him." He had paid five dollars to see 
the affair, and he felt that he was swindled because no eyes 
had been gouged out, or that nobody had been killed. With 
steadily increasing indignation, he crammed his book into 
his hat, and whirled his lash about his donkeys with vicious 



'' BUSINESS IS BUSINESS" fN MONTANA. S11 

energy, because he had been denied his expected flow of 
blood at the prize-fight. After forty rounds had been fought, 
the ''mill" was adjourned by the sheriff of the county, 
who acted as referee, until nine o'clock on Saturday morn- 
ing, and " Tim" and his disciples had to see it out. They 
returned sadly disjointed in spirits and by spirits, and 
brought the intelligence that Con. could not come to time 
in the morning, and Dwyer carried off the belt. Most of 
them pronounced the whole thing a swindle ; and, in order 
not to be entirely disappointed, they had, under the inspi- 
ration of Montana strychnine, improvised sundry " mills" 
on private account. But for that, " Tim" would have re- 
turned broken-hearted. His description of the fight was 
less lucid than original ; but Dwyer was an old chum, and 
a Tim" was proud of the victory. I think it probable 
that there was some collusion between the combatants, as 
- the bets were much the heaviest in favor of Con., and he 
was not visibly disabled the first day. The sale of tickets 
of admission realized over four thousand dollars ; and 
probably fifty thousand dollars was staked on the fight. 
''Heaven's last best gift to man" was represented in the 
crowd, inside of the inclosure; and "Hit him in the eye, 
Jimmy," and " Peg him on the kisser," were the words of 
cheer the fair ones gave to Dwyer as he sparred with his 
antagonist. 

" Business is business" in Montana. They have original 
ways in everything. Graves are as much an article of 
merchandise as brooms, picks, and calico. I notice in one 
Montana paper that "ready-made coffins and saw-bucks" 
can be had at O'Neill's; and Courtwaite has "ready-made 
graves" for the miners of Deer Lodge. "Wilson's Kiyuse 
Cocktails" are declared "a sure thing for the blues." Stray 
wives figure almost as often in the advertisements as stray 
cattle ; and summons in divorce are about as numerous as 



3*72 THE CHINESE IN MONTANA. 

the notices of hymeneal knots. The last two legislatures 
of the Territory devoted most of their deliberations to the 
passage of divorce-bills. Many of the divorced parties 
married again; and Congress laid its mailed hand upon 
the territorial statutes and swept them from existence by 
a single section. The result is that we have numerous 
wives with duplicate husbands, and husbands with dupli- 
cate wives; but such little irregularities do not ruffle so- 
ciety out here, where the air is so thin. " Business is 
business," whether in matrimony, a prize-fight, a horse- 
race, a vigilance-swing, or a Sunday auction. 

One of the social curiosities of this region is the Chi- 
nese population. There are one hundred or more of them 
in and about Virginia, and twice as many in Helena. They 
gather in the mining-camps and devote their energies to 
working abandoned claims and washing for the miners. 
They are all from Chinese Tartary, and are mostly peons, 
or practically slaves to the Chinese overseer who repre- 
sents the company that sent them abroad. Each colony 
has an overseer or superintendent, and to him they all re- 
port their operations, and deposit with him a certain por- 
tion, or the whole, of their earnings. They are, as a rule, 
industrious and inoffensive. Some of them are addicted 
to intemperance, and all love games of chance; but, upon 
the whole, they are economical, and save money every week. 
The Chinese Avomen in the Territory are all owned by 
Chinamen; and they are sold or bartered like any mer- 
chantable commodity. Some are utterly abandoned ; and 
all are strangers to virtue. The Chinese bring with them, 
and sacredly maintain, all their religious superstitions. 
Every Chinaman and Chinawoman must be finally buried 
in the Celestial Empire ; and it is the duty of the master of 
the colony to see that all have the rites of sepulture in their 
own flowery kingdom, without which they believe that 



A SUSPICIOUS BOX RECEIVED. 3t3 

none can be happy hereafter. The few Chinese buried 
here during the last summer have recently been exhumed, 
and are now on their way to their chosen resting-place 
They do not allow the dead to be entombed without a 
bountiful supply of the good things of life. With the body 
they deposit, with necessary dishes, spoons and knives 
and forks, pork, rice, sugar, sweetmeats, candles, money, 
and everything needful for a pleasant journey; and the 
clothing and furniture of the deceased are destroyed in a 
bonfire. When the body is removed from the temporary 
grave, slips of paper, with Chinese hieroglyphics written 
on them, are strewn along the way, to guide the wander- 
ing spirit to the last abode of its mortal tenement, so that 
no confusion may occur when mortality and immortality 
are to be again united. The popular prejudice against 
them is very strong, and they are compelled to subordi- 
nate themselves in all respects to the interests of the 
mining population. They are not allowed to work placer- 
diggings until the Avhites desert them ; and then they must 
avoid all disputes with the ruling race, or they will be 
''cleaned out to bed-rock." 

I incline just now to think better of the Mormons than 
I did. I have for some weeks been reading in the Eastern 
papers the notices of delicious strawberries, grapes, pears, 
and apples, until vexation made me hurriedly skip all such 
paragraphs. A few days ago the teamster dumped a large 
box into the ofiBce, marked as expressed from Salt Lake, 
but without anything on the outside to indicate its con- 
tents or value. I at first thought that Brother Brigham 
had been preserving my letters and concluded to acknowl- 
edge the favor by an infernal machine. A short council 
was held over the suspicious stranger ; and finally one of 
the boys concluded to '' go for it anyhow." The top came 
off without any explosion or sulphurous fumes, and, when 



374 BRUIN VISITS UNION CITY. 

he withdrew his arm, a large cluster of elegant grapes was 
suspended from his "bunch of fives." It was the first ad- 
vent of a box of grapes into Union City ; and, as there 
were fifty pounds in the cargo, the evening was devoted to 
luxmy. A kind friend, with whom I had taken various 
dishes of luscious strawberries when in Salt Lake last 
spring, had thought of me generously as he was reveling 
in the rich offerings of the Mormon vines ; and he sent 
the box four hundred miles by stage to mingle the luxuries 
of civilization with the sterile cliffs of the Rocky range. 
Although the welcome gift did not come from one of the 
Mormon faith, I could not but thank Mormon industry 
and thrift for the matchless fruits they now gather where 
once was the Great Desert of the Plains. 

Master Bruin visited us last week, but did not tarry 
long. He came over the steep bluff close by, viewed the 
encroachments of his enemy upon his favorite retreats, and 
then trotted off in disgust. Scarcely had he appeared upon 
the hill, when a rifle came from every cabin, and a dozen 
well-armed men were after him. He had the advantage, 
however, as he was on the summit of the cliff, while his 
pursuers had to climb nearly one thousand feet ; and he 
was selfish enough to run away all alone, when he could 
have had plenty of company and a spirited fight. But, 
like General Sherman, he did not choose to have war ; and 
he hied to the willows of the Madison. We had visions of 
bear-steaks, bear-roasts, bear baked, bear fried, bear stewed, 
and bear with hominy; but his bearship had visions of 
another winter snooze, and went his way. The cinnamon 
and grizzly bear are numerous here, and very savage. No 
single hunter is safe in encountering one, unless he can 
break the fore-shoulder at the first fire, or escape up a tree. 
As I have not lost any bears, I'll not hunt them. Bear- 
meat, with elk, moose, deer, antelope, mountain-sheep, and 



A PLENTIFUL WINTER. 375 

grouse, are now abundant in the city markets at reasonable 
prices. In a month more, game will sell cheaper than beef, 
as most persons soon weary of it. The Territory has this 
year produced enormous crops of potatoes, cabbages, tur- 
nips, and onions, and quite enough beef and flour to supply 
the wants of the population ; and the miners will enjoy a 
plentiful winter. 



LETTER XL. 

Meeting with Colonel Beidler. — His Appearance and Dress. — How 
he employs his Time. — The Terror of Desperadoes and Savages. 
— His Complaint that Business is dull. — Local Keports of his 
Doings. — The Montana Legislature. — The only Kepublican 
Member ejected.— Supremacy of the Positive Kebel Element 
in Montana. — What the Legislature will do. — Montana Win- 
ters. — The Storm-King reigns. — The Clouds a Protection to the 
Eyes.— Freezing insensibly. — The Effect of Dry, Cold W^eather. 
— Health of the Kesidents. — The Mountains to become a Great 
Eesort for Invalids. 

Union City, Montana Terr., November 9, 1867. 
I HAD the pleasure recently of taking Colonel John X. 
Beidler by the hand; and I need hardly say that the greet- 
ing was mutually cordial. I had not seen him for twelve 
years, when he was known to the people of Chambersburg 
as an excellent maker of brooms, cocktails, and juleps, and 
a fellow of infinite jest. He has grown stouter, but not 
any taller, since he has been living in the mountains ; and 
he still carries the old merry twinkle of the eye that made 
his face beam with good humor when he was among us in 
the " Green Spot," Time has not entirely spared him, and 
his still youthful face has its furrows, and his locks are 
sprinkled with silver ; but he is as active and jolly as ever, 
and pursues the ceaseless, restless tenor of his way from 
one end of the Territory to the other. A white slouch hat 
with an immense brim ; loose frock-coat with ponderous 
pockets ; pants and vest of the same cloth, loosely cut ; 
high-topped boots; the inevitable woolen shirt; a brace of 
(3t6) 



COLONEL BEIDLER'S APPEARANCE. 377 

faithful pistols in his belt, and a huge "Arkansas tooth- 
pick," or bowie-knife, in a leather sheath, compose the 
"outfit" of this mysterious and almost ubiquitous person- 
age. He is always in a hurry; never stops to talk, un- 
less it is "business," or to pay a hasty tribute to valued 
friendship ; and whence he comes or whither he goes but 
few know. He is the great detective of the mountain- 
regions ; works up every important theft, runs down every 
murderer; pursues every criminal who flees to escape jus- 
tice ; "spots" wrong-doers often before they mature their 
villainy, and disperses their bands ; takes a turn at the 
Indians occasionally, usually at the cost of savage scalps; 
runs the militia when in the field ; and can tell of every 
den of iniquity in the Territory, name its occupants, and 
sum up the record of their previous crimes. When im- 
portant trains are to be guarded, he is called to the task ; 
and his presence with a picked command has always pre- 
vented attack. Two years ago he escorted a train with 
two millions of gold over the Bozeman route, and the 
same season he guarded a train that carried a ton of gold 
from Confederate Gulch to Fort Benton. 

We had a long talk over old times and old friends, and 
then he hurried off on his favorite mission. He had spurred 
his " kiyuse" from Helena to Yirginia — a distance of one 
hundred and thirty miles over the steep mountain-ranges — 
in fifteen hours, and was ready to go one hundred and thirty 
miles more in less time, if necessary. To speak of him here 
as Colonel Beidler, or Mr. Beidler, would make Montana 
people stare, and most likely provoke the inquiry, "Is he 
any relation of X?" When "X" is spoken of, every one 
at once understands who is meant. He has no other name 
here, unless in official documents as United States Collec- 
tor of the Port of Helena, Deputy United States Marshal, 
or colonel of the militia. When he "goes for" a desperado, 

33 



378 REPORTS OF BEIDLERS DOINGS. 

he generally takes him *' without papers," as he terms it; 
and when he commands, no one has yet been reckless 
enough to question his authority or dispute his power. He 
has hung some thirty of the most lawless men the conti- 
nent could produce, and has arrested hundreds, often in 
distant regions and without assistance, and has never been 
repulsed. Many have tried to '' get the drop on him ;" 
but in vain. Quick as the lightning's flash his pistol is 
drawn and cocked, and a movement looking to resistance 
is death. As an expert in the use of the pistol, he has no 
rival since the notorious Plummer was executed by his 
hands. He is evidently in love with his exciting life, and 
already complains that Montana is '' dull" in his line. He 
despises petty law-breakers, and bags a murderer or a first- 
class wholesale thief with the satisfaction of a practiced 
sportsman bagging his favorite game. But he still has 
enough to do to satisfy any ordinary ambition ; for not a 
week passes without his name figuring in the reports of 
justice. A Helena paper of a recent date has the follow- 
ing notices of him, from which it may be inferred how 
''dull" his business is: 

" Can't Tell. — Certain facts in our possession, very 
suggestive of the Hangman's Tree and hemp, we are not 
permitted to speak of at present. We saw 'X' pull a man 
off his horse the other day, and — that's all !" 

There was doubtless a short shrift and a hasty funeral 
without cards. Again: 

" More Bogus. — Joe Logan was arrested a week ago 
by 'X,' for manufacturing bogus gold dust. He was yes- 
terday turned over to the Territorial authorities." 

And again : 

" Escaped. — A candidate for hempen honors escaped last 
night at twelve o'clock. 'X' is in the saddle." 

"X" returned ; but no one has taken the trouble to in- 



THE MONTANA LEGISLATURE. 379 

quire as to the whereabouts of the "candidate for hempen 
honors." He may be living; but, if so, he is out of the juris- 
diction of the unseen tribunal whose death-sentence is often 
carried by '' X" and relentlessly executed where none 
but the Great Judge is witness. It is never done without 
trial and condemnation; but of that trial and terrible judg- 
ment the desperado seldom knows until his doom is pro- 
nounced by him who executes its mandates. The fore- 
going items are from a single number of the Helena Tri- 
Weekly "Herald;" and he appears in like manner in almost 
every issue when he is not absent on " business." He has 
acquired a clever competence, and is more universally es- 
teemed by good citizens than any other resident of the Ter- 
ritory, Like nearly every one in the mountains, he talks 
of " going home" every spring and fall ; but, like many 
others who settled here with the first tide, he will be more 
likely to land in Walrussia than in the States. I pre- 
sume that he would hardly toss a copper between solitary 
confinement and transportation to Pennsylvania. He is 
still unmarried, and his home is anywhere under the 
shelter of the deep, blue-vaulted dome that encircles the 
mountains. 

The Montana legislature met last week. The Senate — or 
Council, as it is called — consists of seven, and the House 
of thirteen members. This county (Madison) elected the 
lone-star Republican legislator chosen in the entire Terri- 
tor}^; and he was ruled out. His majority was not dis- 
puted ; but they decided that they did not need him, and 
vacated his place. Both branches are, therefore, unani- 
mously Democratic, as they call it East; but the name is 
not in favor with most of its adherents here. They would 
much prefer to rally under the name " Confederate," and 
unfurl the flag that would truly symbolize their princi- 
ples, but for the weak prejudices of their party friends in 



380 THE REBEL ELEMENT IN 310 NT AN A. 

other northern portions of the Union, where things are called 
by diplomatic names. Senator Davis, of this district, — an 
ex-rebel officer and a paroled prisoner of war, — was chosen 
president of the first legislative tribunal of Montana by a 
unanimous vote. Senator Watson, also of this district, 
contested the honor of the permanent presidency of the 
body ; but he had been a legislator in Pennsylvania 
(from Washington county), and his State had furnished 
three hundred thousand loyal soldiers, and none to the 
banners of crime : hence he was not eligible. One of posi- 
tive rebel proclivities was demanded, and easily obtained ; 
and he succeeded two to one. The principal work of the 
session will be to nullify the acts of Congress as far as 
possible, and restore the laws recently annulled by the 
national authority. The only question is, whether they 
will be re-enacted by a sweeping statute of a single sec- 
tion, after the fashion of the Border Ruffian legislature of 
Kansas, or be considered separately. They have but forty 
days to perform their legislative functions, and they will 
probably nullify the act of Congress in a statute of about 
three lines. In the South, rebel officers of certain grades 
cannot vote or hold office. In Montana they vote, and 
control and fill most of the important public trusts. A 
registry law, with an iron-clad oath, would be of little use, 
and would simply multiply perjury. They vote in a very 
free-and-easy manner in the mountains. A resident can 
vote at any poll in the Territory, no matter where he may 
have his home, and they do not often take the trouble to 
swear voters. It is needless to say that many ''vote early, 
vote often, and see that their neighbors vote," besides oc- 
casionally voting for them, in Montana elections. Cava- 
naugh had more majority in several precincts than there 
were men, women, and children within the limits of the 
polls. They cheated just for the love of it ; for a fair elec- 



THE STORM-KING REIGNS. 381 

tion would have given the Democracy as much majority as 
they needed for every purpose. Such little irregularities 
as voting several times, upsetting the ballot-box in a row, 
and making the count suit the tastes of the controlling 
parties, are not considered worth complaining about, By- 
and-by railroads, free schools, and progressive agriculture, 
mining and commerce, will come along; and there are 
better days and better government in store for Montana. 

Old Winter has established his despotic empire in our 
midst, and he howls his hoarse murmurs about us with 
pitiless disregard of the comfort of the mountaineers. We 
do not mind his calm frosts. The mercury may go down 
nearly to zero, as it has done several times recently, and no 
one will think the weather cold; but when the angry tem- 
pest takes up the dry snow in its winds and flings it in 
mad confusion hither and thither, we are glad to surrender 
the contest. While the brief summers are most delightful, 
' usually clear, calm, and balmy as Eastern spring, winter 
crowns his grim visage with almost perpetual scowls and 
storm, and the snows are but feathers on his breath. The 
valleys below us are still bare, though bleached to repulsive 
barrenness, but up in the mountains all is robed in white ; 
and until another long winter drags its weary months 
along, we will have but the green tops of the straggling 
pines to break the painful monotony of the frosty mount- 
ain-crown. But here, as elsewhere, nature is beneficent in 
her laws. The latitude demands nearly half the year for 
winter. The earth, parched by dewless and rainless sum- 
mers, refuses to rear the forest to soften the gleam of the 
winter's sun ; and the Storm-King generously clouds his 
rays and protects the residents of the mountain-gorges. 
If the winters were calm and clear as the summers, few 
eyes would survive the blinding glare of the sun upon the 
unbroken coat of snow. It is wisely ordered, therefore, 

33* 



382 FREEZING INSENSIBLY. 

that the clouds and storm shall rule through winter's 
reign; and, when exceptional clear days fling their bril- 
liant beams over the whitened, glassy earth, green or 
smoked spectacles are necessary to those exposed to the 
sun, if the eyes would be protected from serious injury. 
Many Indians suffer from impaired sight, and some from 
total blindness, by exposure in mild winters. In the val- 
leys the snow disappears almost as rapidly as it falls, 
excepting in unusually severe cold spells; but in the 
mountains, where Indians winter for game, they have per- 
petual snow from early fall until late spring. 

Another peculiarity of the winters in the Rocky Mount- 
ains is the insensibility of residents to cold. The air is 
so dry and pure that the cold is not felt as it is in the 
East. When the thermometer is down to zero, it is not 
considered unpleasant for out-door work unless there is a 
violent storm ; and men wear fewer clothes, and suffer less, 
than do the people of Pennsylvania in ordinary winters. 
Overcoats are seldom worn, save by travelers. The chief 
care that persons exposed to the cold must exercise, is to 
guard against freezing their feet, limbs, hands, and ears 
without any knowledge of it until they get to the fire; and 
it is not uncommon for persons to freeze to death without 
any appreciation of their danger. Any one about to start 
on a journey in very cold weather should ascertain the 
range of the thermometer, and calculate, before he starts, 
how long he can safely expose himself; for he cannot trust 
to his suffering to admonish him when to cease the strug- 
gle with cold. Many Eastern troops have been frozen 
without any sense of danger ; and even experienced resi- 
dents have suffered a like fate. The dry frost sends the 
chilled blood gradually and without pain to the heart, the 
circulation narrows imperceptibly, and, with no admonition 
to the traveler used to the damp, stinging winters of the 



HEALTH OF THE RESIDENTS. 383 

East, and without serious discomfort, the life-fountain is 
congealed in the icy embrace of death. Rheumatism is 
unknown in this climate, — excepting among miners who 
work in wet placer-diggings in winter ; and even among 
them it is very rare. I have not seen a single resident of 
Montana who was suffering from a cold, — the complaint 
so common, and so fatal, in the East. Not a case of con- 
sumption has been contracted in the Territory. Persons 
suffering from it in the incipient stages have invariabl)'' 
been cured ; and those who had reached the secondary 
stage have been apparently hastened to the grave. The 
infirm of Montana are those who came here the victims 
of fatal disease, or who are suffering from some of the 
many accidents incident to new mining-countries. There 
are asthmatic patients here who would be glad to "go 
home," but dare not. After breathing the pnre, invigora- 
ting air of the mountains, they would return only to die. 
^Mountain-fevers occasionally result from exposure; and 
they are the most obstinate cases Far-Western physicians 
have to treat. They are now seldom fatal ; but, even after 
the tedious course of the fever is run, patients rally more 
slowly than fever-subjects in the States. I doubt whether 
any other portion of the world can excel Montana in 
healthful climate ; and the time is not far distant when it 
will be one of the great resorts of the continent. 



LETTER XLL 

A Sojourn at the Capital. — Pleasant Weather, — Con. Orem broken 
up in Business. — His Groggery leased for the House of Kepre- 
sentatives. — The Montana Senate. — Virginia City improving. 
— Bishop Tuttle. — His Earnest and Successful Efforts among 
the Western People. — Methodism. — The Energy of the Catho- 
lics. — Their Efforts to educate the Children of the Mountains. 
— A Prize-Fight and Funeral. — Trial of Professor Hodge for 
Murder. — His Acquittal. — Interesting Entertainment — Confu- 
sion of the Glasses and Hats. — Belligerent Attorneys. — How 
they missed a Funeral. — Judge Williston, — The Weather. — 
The Pleasant Autumn. — Social Amusements in the Capital — 
Everything ends in a Dance. 

Virginia City, Montana Terr., November 20, 1867. 
After six weeks' sojourn in the mountains, I have 
made a hasty visit to the capital, to see the legislature, 
the courts, and the fashions, and chat with my new West- 
ern friends on the corners. The weather is beautiful, 
the sun uncomfortably warm, after it dissipates the morn- 
ing chill, and we seek the shady sides as we cluster on 
and whittle off store-boxes and discuss current events. 
My particular friend Con. Orem is out again, with one of 
his optics still a little the worse for his " mill" with 
Dwyer ; but he has given me the most positive assurance 
that he will whip Dwyer the next time. His failure in 
the ring has broken his prestige and naturally diminished 
the trade at his bar. He has therefore hauled off for re- 
pairs, and rented his saloon for the House of Representa- 
tives. The favorite sons of Montana, to the number of 
(384) 



THE MONTANA SENATE. 385 

thirteen, gather in there at ten every morning, to give 
laws to the forty thousand people of the Territory. A 
cheap double ingrain carpet is spread over half the room 
where the members sit, and one of Con.'s private poker 
rooms has been metamorphosed into a platform for the 
Speaker of the House. A rudely-carved and daubed 
eagle, with wide-spread pinions, is suspended back of the 
Sjjeaker's chair ; and, in order that irreverent strangers 
may know the solemn presence they attain when they 
jostle in by mistake to imbibe one of Con.'s ''smashes," 
the eagle supports a painted placard declaring the sacred 
purpose to which the room has been dedicated. The 
Council, corresponding with our Senate in Pennsylvania, 
sits a few doors from the House, in the loft of a store. It 
consists of seven members, of whom four constitute a 
quorum. Like the House, but a portion of the room is 
covered with cheap carpet; and the members sit around 
the stove, smoking, whittling, and cracking jokes, while 
the ordinary routine of legislative business is going on. I 
noticed but one man in either branch who had left a State 
reputation behind him when he came to Montana. I refer 
to Hon. Semple Orr, of Missouri, who was once an un- 
successful candidate for Governor in that State. Taken 
as a body, the legislature falls below mediocrity, although 
every county in the Territory has first-class men who 
would serve the forty days if called upon. Here, as else- 
where, however, politics is a trade, and is not cultivated 
for the lesser honors by the best men. 

I am glad to say that Virginia City is materially im- 
proving in morals. Last Sunday I did not see a single 
street-auction, and not more than half as many stores were 
open as I noticed the first Sunday I spent here in June 
last. Bishop Tuttle, of the Episcopal Church, has per- 
formed a vast work in his mountain-diocese. He came 



386 BISHOP TUTTLE'S SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS. 

here about midsummer, and has traversed the Territories 
of Montana, Idaho, and Utah, visiting all the important 
camps and settlements, and waging a most vigorous offen- 
sive warfare against the rule of the prince of darkness. 
He is able, eloquent, sociable, practical, and untiring, and 
rears an altar to the living God wherever he finds mortals 
to gather around it. He is equally at home in the chapel 
and in the cabin of the lowly ; is never unmindful of his 
great calling, and exhorts to righteousness wherever he 
goes. I judge that he would preach at a prize-fight if he 
could get a start between the rounds, and dismiss the 
'' mill" summarily with a prayer ; and so highly is he 
respected, as a sincere and consistent Christian, that he is 
beloved by the most abandoned. Instead of turning the 
restless tide of men to be found here away from him by the 
denunciations of the law, he preaches the atonement, visits 
the sick, mingles his prayers with the appeals of the sor- 
rowing, and tries to get a Bible into the hands of every wan- 
derer, and a primer into those of every child. Here, where 
skill is as essential to a successful ministry as are piety 
and brains, he seems to be matchless in his work. A good 
politician was spoiled when he entered the pulpit; but, as 
good politicians are comparatively plenty, while eflScient 
ministers are scarce, I am glad that it has fallen to his lot 
to teach holier things. He has an able ally in the Method- 
ists, — ^the pioneers of Protestantism in new countries ; 
but he wisely aims to educate the rising generation of the 
mountains, while the Methodists teach only in their Sab- 
bath-schools as yet. It is a remarkable fact that the 
Catholics have been the first to occupy the whole Far- 
Western region. They have not only churches in almost 
every camp, but their teachers come with their mission- 
aries, and they are educating fully one-half the children of 
the Territories who are educated at all. More than a 



A PRIZE-FIGHT AND FUNERAL. 387 

century ago they extended their missions from Mexico up 
through what is now Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and 
California; and, once established, they rarely abandon a 
field. The Methodists come after them, and hurl their 
thunders against the Pope ; but, while they proselyte a 
few, the priests are gradually, but surely, leading the 
minds of the young to their peculiar faith, and they 
reap rich harvests for their labors. Bishop Tuttle is 
founding schools wherever practicable, and has already 
established a number where the Catholics have hith- 
erto had no competitors. If he will spend five years 
in the mountains, he will be the great benefactor of this 
people, and must have many stars for his crown. The 
only violent innovation upon the sanctity of the Sabbath 
that occurred here last Sunday was a negro prize-fight 
that came ofif behind the hill close to the city. A funeral 
had gathered the idlers around the Catholic church ; but, 
while the services were in progress, a whisper of the fight 
passed around, and when the priest was through, half his 
audience was missing. It did not break up the funeral, 
sadly as it thinned the ranks of the procession ; but it did 
break up the fight. The sheriff noticed the movement, 
and followed, and his unexpected presence dispersed the 
unlawful assembly, most unexpectedly to himself. The 
principals and bottle-holders did not wait to see whether 
the sheriff came as a spectator or as an oflicer of the law, 
and the bruise was called a draw as the colored gentry 
gave leg-bail. As funerals and prize-fights are about 
equally rare in this section, they had nearly an even 
chancy for the crowd on the score of novelty ; but the fight 
drew rather the best. The bishop will have things mended 
in a moral way by another year, and Sunday in Virginia 
City will be as quiet and orderly as in Chambersburg. 
The most important criminal trial that has ever occurred 



388 TRIAL OF PROFESSOR HODGE. 

in Montana closed here on Saturday evening; and I wit- 
nessed the last day of it. The ablest lawyers were en- 
gaged, — Colonels Sanders and Wolfork for the defense, and 
Colonel May, with District Attorney Shober, for the prose- 
cution. Professor Hodge, of New York, was tried for the 
murder of Mr. Moore ; and the high personal and scientific 
standing of the accused attracted public interest to the case. 
I might say that he was acquitted of course, as no capital 
conviction has yet occurred in the Territory, although there 
have been some fifty trials for homicide ; but the defense 
had a good cause, and he was acquitted justly. The four 
speeches of the attorneys occupied ten hours, — two and a 
half hours each ; and, as no good lawyer could talk that long 
on a case with less than a dozen important witnesses, they 
naturally made half their speeches on the case and the 
other half on each other. It seems that they had to talk 
their time out, or expose themselves to the imputation of 
inability to do justice to their cause ; and before the long 
argument was closed, some bad blood and more bad 
whisky got into it. Derringers and revolvers were there- 
fore in demand before the mellow mountain-twilight had 
disappeared. An entertainment given impromptu to Pro- 
fessor Hodge, at the hotel where I was staying, severed 
the incensed combatants, and we all made merry over 
the congratulations and repeatedly proposed health of the 
rescued professor. The wine not only effervesced in the 
bottles, but it seemed to effervesce in the secondary stage 
as well ; and we had toasts and eloquence and drinks until 
the drinks and eloquence began to multiply themselves 
by compound rules, and anywhere outside of the mount- 
ains I would have called the party hilarious. Finally the 
bottles became awkward ; they would tumble over, no one 
knew why, and as often attempt to stand on the top as on 
the bottom ; the wine was wayward as untamed lightning 



BELLIGERENT ATTORNEYS. 389 

and would run almost everywhere but in the glasses ; the 
glasses would not hold still for the bottles, and seemed to 
break now and then most unaccountably; the waiters 
would mistake the smoker's nose for his cigar or pipe, and 
add a fresh blossom to it, — until finally confusion brought 
on a general engagement, when " Nick Berry," the deputy 
sheriff, whose glass-ware had committed more than its 
share of blunders, declared the entertainment closed in 
consequence of the immediate approach of Sunday. I have 
yet to hear of the first man who got away with his own 
hat ; and the inference is irresistible that the hats were on 
a spree while the social party was in progress. The next 
day, being Sunday, the belligerent attorneys had leisure, 
and some time in the course of the morning they each re- 
(jollected that there were mortal injuries to be atoned for, 
and three braces of pistols, well loaded and capped, swung 
in as many coat-tails. Industriously did the embryo com- 
batants search for each other ; but they always happened 
to roam on different streets, and the sun went down on 
their unappeased wrath. Judge Williston and I walked 
the streets for several hours, expecting to come across a first- 
class funeral. He had new clothes on, and he considered 
it most fortunate that he could be on hand in faultless 
black. As a sort of honorary member of the bar, I had 
thought out the points of a speech to be delivered to the 
mourning brethren of the profession in case of a fatal en- 
counter ; and the judge was just in trim to preside witfi 
the dignity demanded by the solemnity of the occasion. 
But the next morning the war was over ; two of the bel- 
ligerents had, in their haste for an ''eye-opener," taken a 
" smile" together before their slumbering pugnacity was 
aroused, and Peace spread her silvered wings over the 
bar and the bars of the capital. 

The weather has been remarkably fine in the mountains 
34 



390 SOCIAL A3IUSEMENTS IN THE CAPITAL. 

this fall. With the exception of several snow-storms, we 
have had more genial days than I have ever known in 
Pennsylvania. During this month the thermometer, 
marked at noon and at six, morning and evening, has 
averaged a fraction over forty-seven degrees ; and up in 
Union City, seven thousand five hundred feet above the 
sea, the days have been the most pleasant I have ever en- 
joyed in any climate. It was so in the fall of 1863, and 
the succeeding winter was very mild, with brief excep- 
tional cold spells ; but the last two winters were long and 
severe. The Indians and old mountaineers all predict that 
the coming winter will be unusually moderate ; and I hope 
that they may not prove false prophets. The people, how- 
ever, calculate on long winters, and prepare for them. There 
are more social amusements in this city than in any town 
treble its size in the States. The Governor and his lady 
give a public reception every week in the largest room that 
can be found, and several hundred attend regularly. A 
formal bow to the Governor and his wife, and a shake of 
their hands, end all ceremony, and thenceforth the attend- 
ants promenade, waltz, polka, or join cotillons, to elegant 
music, at pleasure. When I left, at midnight, there seemed 
to be no abatement in the dance. I could not join, as, while 
little was done for the cultivation of my head when young, 
the heels were totally neglected ; and I was entertained by 
the perspiring dancers as they would drop out to gather 
breath. They have other social assemblies which meet 
weekly and vary the entertainment between lectures and 
dancing. I believe that all meetings in this region, ex- 
cepting at church and funerals, end in a dance, no matter 
how they begin. The people of the mountains enjoy life, 
and never discount trouble. When it comes, they meet it 
manfully, and with the first ray of sunshine they leave 
their sorrows behind them, and move on to gather the 
flowers from the sunny sides of the rugged journey. 



LETTER XLIL 

The Heroes of Civilization in Montana. — Colonel Wilbur F, San- 
ders, the Yolunteer Advocate of the People. — His Defense of 
Order and Signal Triumph over Crime. — The Trial and Execu- 
tion of George Ives. — His Position at the Bar. — Leading the 
Forlorn Hope of Kepublicanism. — Colonel George L. Shoup, 
the Hero of Sand Creek. — His History of that Battle. — His In- 
tegrity, Courage, and Benevolence, — Colonel Neil Howie.' — His 
Capture of "Dutch John," — He commands the Montana Mi- 
litia. — His Defense of the Gallatin Border. — Kestrained from 
Offensive Movements. — The Tides of Fickle Fortune in the 
Mountains. — The Discoverer of the Comstock Mine, 

Virginia City, Montana Terr., November 25, 1867. 
While every new country has its heroes whose names 
are justly inscribed on the scroll of fame, it is not uncommon 
for the deeds of some of the most useful and heroic to be 
unknown beyond the limited circles in which they move. 
Colonel Beidler figures in every Montana newspaper, be- 
cause he is ever crossing the path of noted criminals, and 
the records of crime necessarily perpetuate and widen his 
fame. While others who stood by his side in the darkest 
days of trial, and performed acts of noblest heroism, have 
withdrawn to the quiet channels of business, he has con- 
tinued on the war-path against desperadoes, and stands 
without a rival as the terrible messenger of justice. Of him 
I have written before and with more minuteness, because 
of the interest his personal acquaintance in Franklin 
county attaches to his history ; and I now turn to pay a 

(391) 



392 COLONEL WILBUR F. SANDERS. 

hasty tribute to several others who justly rank among the 
heroic of the mountain-regions. 

Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders was one of the first per- 
manent settlers of Montana. He had previously served 
with marked gallantry in the Union army, until broken 
health compelled him to abandon a calling that enlisted 
his whole heart and was an inviting theatre for his manly 
courage. When Governor Edgerton, his uncle, was ap- 
pointed Governor of the Territory, Colonel Sanders came 
with him, in search of health, adventure, and fortune. He 
had already attained a high position at the Ohio bar, for 
one of his years ; and on his arrival he devoted himself to 
the practice of his profession. He was here before the 
courts were organized, and took a prominent part in in- 
troducing forms of law, and in winning for them that 
respect so often denied in new countries, but so essential 
to the order and safety of society. When he came, Plum- 
mer was in the zenith of his power, and the whole energy 
of the law was paralyzed by desperate and corrupt officers 
charged with its execution. Crime was supreme and 
defiant. Murders were committed in open day, without 
fear of retribution, and robberies were almost of hourly 
occurrence. A reign of terror spread its dark pall over 
the camps and settlements of Montana, and none dared to 
demand the punishment of the criminals who publicly 
gloried in their evil deeds. In the fall of 1863 the for- 
bearance of the better class of citizens was exhausted, and 
the resistance to crime took form in the organization of a 
vigilance committee. The desperadoes were confederated 
by oaths and signs ; they knew their men, and could com- 
mand them at any point in the shortest possible period 
ready for action. But the very perils which beset the 
effort to redeem Montana from the thraldom of crime made 
strong men stronger, and, with the highest resolve to do 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF GEORGE IVES. 393 

and dare for the right, George Ives, one of the desperado 
leaders, was arrested and arraigned before a court of the 
people. Several thousand spectators were present, all 
armed ; but how many of them were ready to obey the 
secret signal of Plummer's band and murder the chief 
actors, no one friendly to order could judge. With their 
lives in their hands they erected the new altar of justice, 
selected a jury of twenty-four true men to pass upon the 
guilt of the prisoner, and called for a prosecutor. It was 
the most perilous of all the positions in the court, and men 
naturally hesitated. A young advocate, tall and slender 
in stature, but with intelligence and determination written 
in every feature of his face, came forward, and, in the name 
of the people, charged that George Ives was a murderer 
and unfit to live. His bearing told, more eloquently than 
could language, that either himself or the criminal must 
die ; and his clear voice rang out over the plain as he 
pleaded the cause of order with a fervor and ability that 
thrilled the audience, and paralyzed the majority who had 
come determined to save their companion by fresh murder 
if necessary. The jury rendered their verdict, declaring 
the prisoner guilty. It was confidently expected by his 
friends that the most the court would dare to do would 
be to pronounce the sentence of banishment ; but they little 
knew the earnestness of the citizens. While the desperadoes 
were clamoring for the submission of the sentence to the 
audience, the tall, gaunt form of the young prosecutor ap- 
peared on a wagon, and, with his eyes flashing his invin- 
cible will, he moved that "George Ives he forthivith hung 
by the neck until he is dead!" Before the well-organized 
friends of the accused recovered from this bold and unex- 
pected movement, the motion was carried ; and not until 
the sudden clicks of the guns of the guard were heard 
simultaneously with the order to "fall back from the pris- 

34* 



394 COLONEL SANDERS'S POSITION AT THE BAR. 

oner," did they appreciate that their comrade was doomed 
to die. With matchless skill the advocate for the people 
had carried his case to judgment, and the murderers were 
appalled as in less than an hour they saw Ives drop in the 
death-noose. The people, clad in the strong armor of jus- 
tice, had triumphed in the very presence of the heroes of 
crime; and the execution of the stern judgment fore- 
shadowed the fate of all the robber's band. Before an- 
other autumn chilled the mountain - breezes, not one of 
them was among the living. The young advocate who 
thus braved defiant crime in the very citadel of its power, 
and hurled back the fearful tide of disorder, was Colonel 
Sanders; and he is to-day beloved by every good citizen, 
and hated by every wrong-doer, for his sublime heroism 
in behalf of the right. He is still at the bar, and tries one 
side of every important case in his district. The traces of 
his early efforts against the lawless are still visible in his 
peerless invective when it is warranted at the bar ; but he 
is known to be brave to a fault, and as generous and noble 
as he is brave, and pretenders do not seek notoriety by 
testing the qualities of his manhood. He is still in the 
prime of life, and, but for his fidelity to peace and order, 
and his earnest devotion to his country's cause, he would 
have been in Congress from the organization of the Ter- 
ritory, and continued to represent Montana until he volun- 
tarily surrendered the trust. He has twice led the forlorn 
hope of the Republicans, — first in 1864, and again in 1867 ; 
and, in the face of predominant treason, he has been boldly 
faithful to freedom and to all the logical results of treason's 
bloody failure. With abiding faith in the ultimate triumph 
of correct principles, he will battle on until churches and 
schools and railroads come to his aid and give victory to 
a better civilization. When that triumph shall have been 
won, he will be the crowning victor, aud wear its richest 
laurels. 



COLONEL GEORGE L. SHOUP. 395 

Colonel George L. Shoup, the hero of Sand Creek, Colo- 
rado, is now a citizen of Montana. You might meet 
him every day for a year and not know where he has 
been, what he has done, and what his purposes are, unless 
closely questioned. He is tall, well formed, has a coun- 
tenance that denotes unmistakably the integrity of all his 
actions, and his soft blue eyes and pleasant, unaffected 
manners stamp him as anything but a man of cruel in-- 
stincts. He has spent many years in the mountains, has 
amassed an ample fortune, and mingles with his business 
many generous deeds of which the world knows not. On 
but one subject can he be aroused out of the even tenor of 
his way. When you speak of "friendly Indians" in his 
presence, his eyes kindle and his reserve is broken. It is 
the key that unlocks the only passion that is stronger than 
himself. He has spent the most of his days in the Indian 
country, and has never harmed them save in self-defense. 
The degraded fragmentary bands which wander about 
Salmon River, where he does business, never appeal to 
his generosity in vain ; but he well knows that they will 
steal and murder when they think they can do so with 
safety. He has been among all the tribes, and has but one 
story for the race, — that they will murder wantonly when 
they can hope to escape detection. He credits them with 
no friendship for the whites beyond what is dictated by 
fear. He was in Colorado when the horrible butcheries 
of 1863 aroused the settlers to the deepest hostility, and 
he raised a regiment to serve in the Indian war. At the 
battle of Sand Creek, known East as the Chivington mas- 
sacre, he was in immediate command, and directed the 
movements of the troops in the engagement. It would 
have been well for the government, and for the people of 
the Far West, had his judgment been accepted and his 
actions approved ; but dishonest Indians, and still worse 



396 ffTS HISTORY OF SAND CREEK BATTLE. 

Indian agents, urged that the Sand Creek Indians were 
not hostile, and Congress paid them for their loss of stolen 
property, and atoned for their loss of warriors by gener- 
ous annuities. Colonel Shoup has informed me — and his 
veracity has never been impeached where he is known — 
that among the killed was one leader of an Indian band 
that had robbed a train but a short time before ; that he 
recovered horses and mules belonging to different trains 
previously captured by Indians ; that three scalps from 
white women, not yet dry, were seen and examined by 
himself and others, and that a vast amount of other plun- 
der, taken from trains and families, was found in their 
camp. The battle, he admits, was a butchery, and because 
it could be nothing less. By the side of the warriors the 
squaws and children, old enough to fight, fought with the 
desperation of fiends; and the battle could not cease until 
the Indians were killed, because they would not surren- 
der. Children were killed because they were within the 
Indian rifle-pits, and could not wholly escape. In govern- 
ment circles he would be called a murderer, and an insti- 
gator of war with the Indians ; but where he is known 
his valor, integrity, and humanity are regarded as the con- 
spicuous traits of his character. He is not a contractor 
nor a politician, and he could buy anything in the Montana 
market to-day twenty per cent, lower than could the gen- 
eral government, because his credit is better and his faith 
unbroken. When Montana shall have passed through the 
hard ordeal that must form a part of the history of all new 
Territories, her peaceful and prosperous advancement will 
be greatly indebted to the unpretending but efficient efforts 
of Colonel Shoup, 

Colonel Neil Howie, United States Marshal of the Ter- 
ritory, is another of those who have marked the history 
of Montana with creditable fame. He was a resident here 



COLONEL NEIL HOWIE. Sg-J 

in the dark days when the desperate struggle between or- 
der and chaos came ; and in the midst of the conflict, when 
every active friend of society was pointed out for sacri- 
fice, he performed the most conspicuous act of individual 
heroism that is recorded in the many noble acts of noble 
men in the mountains. "Dutch John," one of the most 
merciless outlaws, who had committed a number of atro- 
cious murders, was met on the highway by Colonel Howie 
and his train. In vain did the colonel appeal to his men 
to aid him in arresting the desperado ; and finally, when he 
saw that assistance could not be had, he resolved to arrest 
him single-handed or die in the attempt. He followed 
the criminal, and, when seen, his errand could not be mis- 
understood. When the rifle of the murderer was about to 
be leveled, quick as the lightning's flash Howie's trusty 
pistol was drawn, and any effort at resistance would have 
been instant death. He had ''the drop," and there could 
then be no contest. He captured the villain, and brought 
him to the gallows. He is of medium size, much the 
build of Colonel Beidler, but a little taller, and is quite 
muscular. He has the inevitable blue eyes which seem to 
prevail among the heroes of the West, and as genial and 
amiable a face as could be found in a thousand. During 
the last summer he commanded the Montana volunteers ; 
and his name was a host in protecting the exposed valleys. 
General Sherman might have been at Bozeman City with 
five thousand troops, and the people of the Gallatin could 
not have escaped the scalping-knife of the savage ; but 
Colonel Howie, with less than four hundred men, pro- 
tected one hundred miles of exposed frontier but a little 
distance from the hostile tribes. The Indians knew that 
he was on the defensive, and would so remain unless they 
inaugurated war against the settlers. They kncAV also 
that, if provoked to move against them, he would give 



398 THE DISCOVERER OF COMSTOCK MINE. 

them war in their own way, — just such war as the Indian 
will never invite ; and there was peace here while the hos- 
tile bands traveled one thousand miles to assail reg- 
ular troops. A scouting-party was sent out by Colonel 
Howie to ascertain the movements of the Indians. The 
party was assailed by a large band, and two killed and 
three wounded. Colonel Howie, with thirty men from his 
command, rescued the wounded and recovered the dead in 
the face of three hundred savages. The next day a re- 
inforcement of a hundred men joined him ; but he dared 
not advance, for Terry had forbidden it, lest he should 
bring on an Indian war ; and he returned to his camp fret- 
ting like a caged eagle over the imbecility of great com- 
manders. He is now back from the field, as the Indians, 
under the policy of bu3nng peace with money, ammuni- 
tion, arms, etc., will keep quiet during the winter, when 
they could be fought successfully ; and next spring he will 
doubtless return to the border to protect the settlers, while 
the regular army will waste millions, protract the war, 
and sacrifice fresh thousands of emigrants and residents 
to military stupidity and Indian savagery. He is now 
quietly performing his duties as United States Marshal, 
with Colonel Beidler as his assistant, and is honored by 
all classes for his high social qualities and true heroism. 

The history of many men in the mining-regions would 
make romance pale before the truthful portrayal of personal 
adventure and the variable tides of fortune. The name 
of Comstock is known in every business-circle on the con- 
tinent. The celebrated Comstock mine in Nevada, now 
operated by companies w^hose stocks command from thirty 
to forty millions on the market, was discovered by an old 
prospecter of that name, who sold his interest for less than 
three thousand dollars, part of which was paid in trade. 
When in Deer Lodge, last August, I found him gaining a 



THE TIDES OF FICKLE FORTUNE. 399 

precarious subsistence by working in the gulches of that 
county. The tide in his aifairs was not "taken at the 
flood ;" and he is in poverty while millions have been made 
by others as the fruits of his labors. *' Every one has his 
chance some time," is a saying of the miners; and it is in 
the main true. I have scarcely found a miner, among the 
hundreds I have seen, who did not at one time or another 
have fortune within his reach. Many have acquired a 
competence, and wasted it as rapidly as it was gathered ; 
and nearly all have had opportunities which, if properly 
used, would have given success. But, with all the fortunes 
they have acquired, and all they have had within their 
grasp, there are very few indeed who could leave the mines 
better off than they came. They linger from spring to 
fall, and from fall to spring, always hoping to gather 
wealth and return to old friends ; but disappointments 
follow in continued succession, or dissipation defies the 
best resolves, and they remain, and will remain, until, 
after ''life's fitful fever," they will sleep in the unmarked 
tombs of the mountains. 



LETTER XLIIL 

The Pacific Kailroads. — The Central Eoute. — Its Impassable 
Snows. — The Great Achievement of a Pacific Kailroad. — The 
Northern Pacific Kailroad Line. — The Growth of the North- 
western Territories. — A Continuous Line of Civilization from 
the Atlantic to Puget Sound. — Advantage of Distance in the 
Northern Route. — The Western Terminus nearer the Asiatic 
Commercial Ports than San Prancisco. — It crosses the Great 
Elvers of the West. — Advantage in its Construction. —Climate 
on the Northern Route. — Lower Altitude. — Succession of Hot 
Springs. — The Incalculable Development it will inspire. — 
Changes in the Present Centres of Trade. — The Commerce of 
the World will pay Tribute to the Northern Railroad. 

Union City, Montana Terr., December 2, 1867. 
The nation has wisely given its credit to make the great 
Central Pacific Railroad line an established fact. Already 
the iron horse climbs the Sierra Nevadas from the golden 
slopes of California, and traverses the Eastern Plains 
from the Missouri to the base of the mountains at Chey- 
enne. The year I8t0 will unite the Union and the Central 
iron bonds across the continent in the valley of Utah, and 
the tourist may then worship one Sabbath in Boston and 
the next in San Francisco. In the mean time the line 
from St. Louis is moving westward by the Smoky Hill 
to Denver, and thence it will turn south, through New 
Mexico and Arizona, to the Gulf of Mexico, or northwest, 
along the eastern foot-hills, through the fertile valleys of 
the Bozeman route, to the Northern line on the Yellow- 
stone or Gallatin. 
( 400 ) 



THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD LINE. 401 

While the construction of the Central line was the first 
necessity of the nation, the rapid march of progress to the 
north has left it as but the secondary highway from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. Its distance is some five hundred 
miles more ; its grades heavier ; its highest altitude nearly 
three thousand feet greater ; its snows deeper ; its winters 
much more severe ; and from the eastern base of the Rocky 
range to the western base of the Sierra Nevada — a dis- 
tance of probably twelve hundred miles — the valley of the 
Utah alone is productive of freights, while for not less 
than four months of the year five hundred miles of the 
road will be often impassable. I crossed the summit of 
the Rocky range at Bridger's Pass in a terrible snow-storm 
on the 6th of June, and on the 9th passed over five feet 
of snow on the Wasatch range. But I hope that our 
proverbial energy and perseverance will at least measur- 
ably overcome these adverse elements. Whether it shall 
be done or not, this great highway was an imperative 
necessity-, and Congress, and those who have prosecuted 
the enterprise with such wonderful celerity, deserve the 
gratitude of the nation. It will make new fields to blos- 
som where now are waste and desolation, bring fresh 
thousands of pioneers in the valleys and mountains along 
its line, and develop new sources of industry and new 
mines of wealth, until the bleak cliffs and the "American 
Desert" unite in swelling the triumphant progress of the 
New World. So much has been well done. The credit 
of the government, so liberally given when the undertaking 
was a doubtful one, has not drained the Treasury of any 
of its sadly-needed revenues, and the time is past when 
national responsibility need be apprehended. The rail- 
road will be more than able to maintain its own credit and 
care for its liabilities, both government and corporate ; and 
the nation is greatly enriched, without the danger of loss. 

35 



402 GROWTH OF NORTHWESTERN TERRITORIES. 

But, since the construction of the Central line has been 
determined upon, the march of civilization has not been 
sluggish in the North. Montana has opened with her 
thirty or forty thousand population, and has contributed 
one hundred million dollars of gold to the wealth of the 
world. Idaho has nearly an equal population, and is pour- 
ing out her millions annually of the precious metals. West 
of the mountains, Oregon and Washington have far ad- 
vanced in agriculture, in addition to their mineral wealth. 
Hundreds of miles to the north is our newly-acquired 
Russian America, with its mines, lumber, furs, and fish; 
while between lie the British Possessions, bidding us to 
prepare for protection to our extended borders. Nor has 
the march of progress been wholly to the Far Northwest. 
From the centre of Montana, and from the Missouri and 
the Platte, the tide of civilization has been coursing on- 
ward, until the pioneers are scattered through the hills and 
valleys from the Gallatin to the mouth of the Yellowstone, 
and from the Upper Missouri to the Eastern plains. When 
the Central route is blockaded by snows, the sturdy ranch- 
men of Montana are herding their flocks in the mild climate 
of the Gallatin and far down the Yellowstone, and will bring 
them back in the spring for the butcher's block. There is 
now an almost continuous line of people and commerce 
from the Atlantic to Puget Sound ; and, but for the scalping- 
knife of the savage, towns would be reared as by magic, 
and the bleached plains of to-day would wave with golden 
harvests in another year. 

The construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad will 
enable New York to reach the Pacific in less than three 
thousand miles, while to San Francisco the distance is 
nearly three thousand five hundred. From an appar- 
ently reliable work before me (Hall's " Guide to the Great 
West"), the exact difference in favor of the Northern route 



ADVANTAGES OF THE NORTHERN ROUTE. 403 

over the Central is five hundred and forty-two miles from 
Boston, five hundred and twenty-five from New York, four 
hundred and eighty-five from Cincinnati, three hundred and 
sixty-four from St. Louis, five hundred and forty-two from 
Chicago ; and from every port east of New Orleans the dif- 
ference is from one hundred and twenty to over five hundred 
miles in favor of this line. This great disparity in the dis- 
tances of the two routes must, in itself, tell decidedly in their 
relative success when both are completed ; and it should 
now be conclusive of the immediate construction of the 
Northern Pacific Road, if all other advantages were only 
equal. But in every other essential respect the Northern 
route has substantial advantages over the Central. The 
New York, Philadelphia, and Boston merchants will not 
only reach the Pacific five hundred miles quicker than by 
the Central, but when at Puget Sound they are several 
hundred miles nearer the centres of trade in Australia, 
China, and Japan ; and the English merchant will reach 
the trade of China, across our continent, in nearly half the 
time he now reaches it by Suez. In 1860 the value of 
English exports to China was nearly thirty million dollars, 
and the imports from Shanghai — the nearest important 
port in China from Puget Sound — to England were over 
thirty million pounds of tea and twenty thousand bales of 
silk, and twenty million pounds of tea and two thousand 
bales of silk to the United States. Puget Sound has spa- 
cious harbors as secure as any on either coast, and is sur- 
rounded with fine timber and immense beds of excellent 
coal, from which California draws her main supply. A pros- 
perous and progressing agriculture is back of it in Oregon, 
Washington, and Montana ; and the finest water-powers 
give promise of extensive manufacturing in the future. 

But the shorter line between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
and from thence to China and Japan, is not the only mate- 



404 ADVANTAGES OF THE NORTHERN ROUTE. 

rial advantage in favor of the Northern route. It crosses 
the great rivers, the great "natural highways" of trade, 
and the cost and time necessary to its construction are 
thereby sensibly diminished. The Central line had to be 
built from but two points, — the Missouri and the Sacra- 
mento. No intermediate point could be supplied with 
iron, timber, machinery, provisions, etc.; and the two par- 
ties must patiently plod on until they meet. There are no 
rivers by which material can be transported to any part of 
the route, and every pound of iron for the middle portion 
of the road has to cross the Rocky range from the Mis- 
souri, or plow the ocean to S an Francisco, thence to cross 
the Sierra Nevada. On the Northern route, parties can 
work east and west from the Missouri, others can work 
east and west from the Yellowstone, and others can work 
east and west from the Columbia, and all can be supplied 
with iron, locomotives, provisions, and all necessary mate- 
rial at comparatively low cost. There are but few sections 
on the route that will not supply an abundance of good 
timber. The great mountains can be crossed at a much 
lower altitude and with better grade than on the Central ; 
and the cost of grading the entire road will not much ex- 
ceed two-thirds the cost of grading the other. I would re- 
gard it as a safe estimate that the cost of the road per mile 
will be fully twenty per cent, less than that of the Central. 
One of the essential advantages of the Northern route 
is its climate. The Big-Hole Pass, regarded as the great- 
est obstacle in winter, is now traveled by teams all seasons 
of the year; and the testimony of old residents, who have 
traversed the mountains for a quarter of a century, is that 
the snow is not a serious impediment on the proposed line. 
Captain Mullan, who opened the wagon-road to the Pacific, 
and wintered in the mountains, says, in his official report, 
that '' the snow will offer no great obstacle to travel with 



SUCCESSION OF HOT SPRINGS. 405 

horses or locomotives from the Missouri to the Columbia." 
On the continuous line of valleys from the Yellowstone to 
Missoula — nearly one-third the distance of the entire line, 
and in the heart of the mountains — stock is grazed every 
winter without hay or feed. The buffalo migrates north 
to the sweeter grasses and more salubrious climate of the 
Yellowstone, and Missoula raises the earliest and finest 
vegetables of any of the mountain-valleys, and is now grow- 
ing fruit under the very frowns of the Bitter Root and 
Rocky ranges. The base of the mountains on this line 
has the same mean temperature as is found on the Missouri, 
seven degrees farther south. Hot springs abound on almost 
ail the waters in this region. The Madison has a school 
of boiling geysers for its source. They fling their columns 
up from thirty to eighty feet in the air, and soften the at- 
mosphere for miles around and for an incredible distance 
along its course. The Yellowstone has many such springs, 
of varied temperatures, emptying into its waters. I have 
found these hot springs in every valley ; and their effect 
upon the climate is wonderful. Captain Mullan, speaking 
of them, says, " On either side, north and south, are 
walls of cold air, and which are so clearly perceptible that 
you always detect the river when you are on its shores." 
A writer in the " Atlantic Monthly" describes these cur- 
rents as '' a river of hot wind, which is not only one of the 
most remarkable features of the climatology of the conti- 
nent, but which is destined to have a great bearing upon 
the civilization of this portion of the continent. They 
sweep through the passes with the precision and regularity 
of the -Gulf Stream of the Atlantic." Thus, while the passes 
in the British Possessions, where these currents are not 
known, are closed by snow in winter, the passes on the 
line of the Northern route seldom present over two feet of 
snow to contend with. 

35* 



406 INCALCULABLE DEYELOPMENT OF WEAL TIL 

There is another consideration that should determine 
the action of the government in favor of the construction 
of this road. It is the incalculable development of ma- 
terial and permanent wealth it must effect. I have trav- 
ersed the chief valleys of Montana, from the eastern 
extremity of the Gallatin to the western extremity of the 
Deer Lodge, and saw them when their rich harvest was 
ready for the reaper. I have tasted the luscious fruits of 
Missoula, still farther west, and heard the reports of those 
who have explored the Yellowstone in all seasons of the 
year. The fruitfulness of these valleys, with the rudest 
cultivation, would be accepted by most Eastern readers as 
a romance, if truthfully portrayed. The country from St. 
Paul to the Missouri, on a western line, is well known; 
and from the Missouri to the Yellowstone, on the same line, 
there are few obstacles to a railroad ; while valuable farm- 
ing-lands and timber are found most of the way. From 
the point where the Yellowstone is reached, it would seem 
that Nature had marked out this great highway to the 
Pacific. Before the fertile plains and rich mines of Mon- 
tana were known, it was supposed that the railroad must 
run north of the Missouri to Fort Benton ; but no such 
route can be contemplated now. The Yellowstone Valley, 
the richest and most genial of any east of Missoula, can 
be followed to the Gallatin divide, which can be crossed 
at such a grade as is not now considered excessive. 
Then the route runs down through the fruitful farms of 
the Gallatin Valley to the head of the Missouri, when 
it crosses to the Jefferson Valley and ascends through 
prosperous settlements to its head, where lines of agri- 
cultural communities spread out on the Stinking Water 
and Beaverhead. Thence it ascends the Big Hole Valley, 
following the water-grade of the river, until the sum- 
mit of the Rocky range is attained almost impercepti- 
bly, with pioneers already near neighbors on both sides. 



CHANGES TN PRESENT CENTRES OF TRADE. 40t 

From the summit the magnificent Deer Lodge Yalley 
opens, and descends by easy, regular grade for one hun- 
dred miles, with large herds and fine farms dotting it from 
one end to the other. I do not pretend to sufficient knowl- 
edge of the country to indicate the line west of Deer Lodge 
Valley ; but it must cross the luxuriant Missoula Yalley, 
and thence mainly follow the waters to the Western Sea. 
Competent men diJBfer as to the route ; but all agree that 
it need not be circuitous or difficult. Thus for hundreds 
of miles, in the very heart of the Rocky Mountains, the 
Northern Pacific Railroad will pass through the most pro- 
ductive valleys of the continent, and rear State after State, 
with swarming populations and boundless wealth, to give 
prosperity and power to the Union. Unlike the sterile, 
repulsive mountains on the Central route, the valleys of 
Montana will send to the markets of the East and West 
the rich offerings of their fields and mines ; and one of our 
chief sources of productive greatness will be here, where 
but a few years ago the savage ruled the Northern wilder- 
ness and plains. 

This great improvement will revolutionize the present 
centres of trade in the mountain-regions ; and the future 
metropolis of Montana commerce is now marked by but a 
few widely-scattered cabins. Helena, the present chief 
mart of business, will be isolated and left to depend upon 
its local interests. Virginia City will also be off the great 
highway, and localized in its traffic even more than now. 
Fort Benton will recede to a mere frontier military-post, 
and a few straggling steamers will land there to supply 
the soldiers and the settlers on the river. The centre of 
trade will gravitate to the Gallatin Valley, and it will be 
the depot for the North, whence light boats will transport 
from the railroad to the falls above Benton. Goods can 
be shipped up the Missouri and Yellowstone to the rail- 
road, without encountering the perils of the Upper Mis- 



408 THE CROWNING PRIDE OF THE REPUBLIC. 

souri, and the head of navigation will be practically where 
the railroad crosses the Yellowstone. No commerce will 
pass above the mouth of the Yellowstone, excepting what 
the posts and few pioneers on the river may demand ; and 
the Upper Missouri will be left to its alternating angry 
sm'ges and low waters for ages to come. From the Yel- 
lowstone steamers will ascend the Big Horn to supply 
the future settlements of Big Horn and Wind River Yal- 
leys, where the most fertile lands and valuable mineral 
deposits are found ; and they in turn will pour out their 
streams of wealth to the railroad. The now immense 
lumber-trade of the Mississippi, which has all the region 
west of its waters and east of the mountains to supply, 
will be narrowed down to its own natural boundaries; 
while the Missouri and the railroad will bear the fine 
timber of Eastern Montana to cheapen improvement in 
Nebraska and Western low^a. Mining-camps, noAv called 
cities, will fade from the maps as progress reverses primi- 
tive settlements into permanent channels, and the future 
capital of the future Golden State will overlook the union 
of the waters of the mountain-valleys, as they mingle in 
soft murmurs in the sinuous course of the Missouri. 

If 18 to shall see the locomotive sweep from Omaha to 
San Francisco, 1811 should hear its shrill song rever- 
berate over the plains and through the mountains from 
St. Paul to Puget Sound ; and while the Central will be 
hastening its share of travel and freight across the New 
World, the growing tide of trade will sweep through 
these rich valleys until every nation shall pay tribute to 
the Northern Pacific Railroad. It will bring not only the 
matchless wealth of the new Northwest, but the commerce 
of the ancient empires will pass us as it seeks the Eastern 
cities and Europe toward the rising instead of the setting 
sun ; and the crowning pride of the Republic will be this 
great artery of national and commercial life. 



LETTER XLIY. 

Amusements at the Capital. — The Theatre. — Mingling of Pleasure 
and Business. — The Legislature. — Their Laws. — Committee to 
render the Laws intelligible. — How the Gordian Knot was cut. 
— Organization of the Third House. — A Burlesque Legislature. 
— The Contest for Page. — Interesting Educational Statistics. — 
The Courts. — Pines enforced. — The Jurors whittling on Duty. — 
Official Receptions. — The Bachelor Secretary draws Lots for a 
Fair Partner. — The Hurdy-Grurdy. — An Invitation to dance. — 
The Indian Question. — The Delusive Report of Peace. — The 
Polly of Indian Treaties in the Pall. — Treaties made by Indians 
to enable them to renew Hostilities. — The West must have 
Peace. — How it is to be attained. 

Virginia City, Montana Terr., December 6, 1867. 
I HAVE had a truce of a week with the mountains and 
mines, and devoted it to the sights, the fashions, the 
amusements and social enjoyments of the capital. The 
theatre, under the direction of the jolly Langrishe, has 
been running clever audiences. Ingomar has illustrated 
to the accomplished circles of Virginia the ways and tastes 
of the barbarian. Claude Melnotte has confirmed the old 
adage that the course of true love does not always run 
smooth. Pretty much everybody goes to the theatre ; and 
the "Pony," just opposite, clears the cobwebs out of the 
throafs of the people between the acts. Pleasure and busi- 
ness are happily mingled in Western life. When the cur- 
tain falls the glasses rise, and are emptied between social 
greetings and commercial contracts. At the " Pony" may 
be seen the dignitaries of the Territory and city, the mem- 

(409) 



410 THE LEGISLATURE OF MONTANA. 

bers of the bar, the men of business, and around them the 
inevitable and ubiquitous ''bummers," all smiling together, 
and discussing Montana liquors, Indians, politics, and the 
last murder or prize-fight. The legislature is also running, 
and is one of the standard amusements of the city. Thej^ 
pass bills as they like, when they like, and construe the 
Constitution and the organic acts to suit every exigency as 
it arises. They have decided claims to originality, alike in 
their orthography and in the construction of sections. Most 
of their laws have to be reworded before they can be in- 
telligently construed ; and then it is not always a possible 
task. After three sessions had been held in the Territory, 
a commission was appointed to examine the statutes they 
had enacted, correct their spelling, and ascertain to what 
extent they were unintelligible or in conflict with the or- 
ganic act or with each other. The commission waded 
through the duty assigned them, with very unsatisfactory 
results ; and one of the board finally cut the Gordian knot 
by persuading Congress to annul the laws. The present 
legislature has, therefore, turned a new leaf, and must go 
over all the old ground, as the people of the Territory — or 
rather the controlling portion of them— demand that the 
legislature shall now annul the act of Congress by re-enact- 
ing the annulled laws. As Congress pays them their 
salaries, they are bothered how to do it and appear not 
to do it; and this nice distinction taxes the genius of the 
legislature overmuch. The result is that their forty days 
are nearly out, and they have done little or nothing. An 
extraordinary session is now inevitable, and the city will 
have the legislative Solons in their midst for another forty 
days. In order to facilitate legislation, a Third House has 
been organized, embracing most of the leading men resid- 
ing here. It meets in the Representative Hall, and is pre- 
sided over by a member of the regular House. Judge 



A BURLESQUE LEGISLATURE. 411 

Willi ston, Major Bruce, and myself were put in general 
nomination for the office of page, and, after an animated 
contest, Major Bruce was chosen. As he is editor of the 
Democratic organ here, the House was doubtless unwilling 
to incur his displeasure, and Williston and I think that the 
issue was controlled rather by the major's position than 
by the merits of the several aspirants. Senator Orr, who 
missed the Governorship of Missouri because '' the other 
fellow" got the most votes, is acting as Executive of the 
auxiliary government; and he delivered an elaborate mes- 
sage, after which he served in the capacity of a legislator. 
I noticed particularly his statistics on the subject of educa- 
tion, gathered from the report of the Superintendent of In- 
struction, who signed his mark to the document. He re- 
ports the number of children, of all colors, admitted to the 
schools at thirty-seven and a half; and he gives the number 
preparing to graduate for the gallows, the penitentiary, and 
the legislature as exactly the same number to the fraction. 
The notices of bills, resolutions considered, and reports 
from committees were decidedly entertaining; and wit and 
jest, often more pungent than chaste, had the largest license, 
and took the utmost liberty with names and reputations. 
Then we have the courts, another unfailing source of 
amusement, where legal gladiators play fastastic tricks 
before the shade of Blackstone. At the last row among 
the members of the bar, the judge took a hand so far as to 
fine one of the belligerents ten dollars, and followed it up 
by fining a remiss juror fifteen dollars. One of the tip- 
staves will probably come in next for a fine of twenty-five 
dollars': so that the thing is getting gradually under way. 
The jurors complained this week that they could not 
get suitable sticks to whittle ; and the deputy sheriff now 
passes a soft pine board along the jury as soon as they 
are sworn, and each one splits off a piece corresponding 
with his appetite in that line. 



412 ■AN' INVITATION TO DANCE. 

We have also the levees or receptions every week by 
the Governor and other officials. They are popularly 
known as "levels," or "deceptions," and since they have 
been so denominated they draw well. Last night Secre- 
tary Tufts gave his "level;" and, as he is a bachelor, the 
question of selecting a fair partner to accompany him in 
state became a very serious one. In order to avoid in- 
vidious distinctions, he drew lots, and won the Governor's 
wife, who promptly accepted and graced the occasion with 
her presence and smiles. I borrowed a "boiled shirt," 
after much tribulation on account of my " heft," and 
plunged in with a Byron collar and polished boots, — and 
also the other necessary apparel. Over two hundred peo- 
ple were in attendance, nearly one-half of them ladies, and 
they tripped the light fantastic toe until the "wee sma' 
hours" admonished them that it was time to disperse. 

Nor does our list of amusements end with dances in 
honor of our officials. The "hurdy-gurdy" still has 
its place in the capital, and on the most public corner 
of the city. It has lost much of its old-time spirit, and 
will soon be only of the past. I visited one for the first 
time, recently. Four girls, about fifty men, an Irish fiddler, 
a bar-keeper, and a bar, constituted the outfit. The gents 
were charged fifty cents each for a dance with the fair 
damsels, and after the dance they were required to pay a 
like sum at the bar for drinks for themselves and partners. 
I noticed that the girls were as prompt at the bar as they 
were on the floor. Money is scarce among the miners, 
and it was at times difficult for the "last best gift" to get 
the set made up. They would pass through the crowd 
exhausting their powers of persuasion to get the sterner 
sex to participate. One — not fair, but fat and forty — insisted 
that I should join in the festivities of the occasion; but I 
modestly declined, saying that I never danced, to which 



THE HURDY-GURDY. 413 

she replied, with the bewitching air of the sex, " D n 

it, don't tell rae ijou don't dance ; I've i^aic you dance forty 
times." There I was, with a borrowed white shirt on, 
and liable to be taken for anybody but myself; so I did not 
deny the soft impeachment, lest I should fail to persuade 
my tender accuser of my proper identity, but declined all 
controversy on the subject. She then squared herself in 
the middle of the room, and extended a general invitation, 
saying, " I'd like to see the color of the fellow's hair who'll 
dance with me." A long, lank miner, with unkempt beard, 
sporting a cigar at an angle of forty-five degrees toward 
his nose, accepted the challenge, and the dance went on as 
I went out. 

A few years ago, w^hen Alder Gulch was yielding 
thousands of dollars daily from the placer- mines, the 
hurdy-gurdy was the great institution of the mining- 
camps. Yirginia then had half a dozen regular houses of 
the kind open nightly ; and, as men were more numerous 
here then than now, and women not so plenty, a dollar in 
dust was freely paid for the pleasure of a dance with any- 
thing that could lay just claims to female apparel. Nor 
did the abandoned only attend them. It was not uncom- 
mon for virtuous women, whose husbands had not been 
fortunate in the mines, to go occasionally to provide them- 
selves with the necessaries of life ; and, rough as the 
mining-population was at that day, they always treated 
with proper respect such frequenters of the hurdy-gurdy, 
and made it a point to contribute liberally to their wants. 
At that time a dance in a hurdy-gurdy was good for a " clean 
up" in the morning of from fifty to one hundred dollars in 
gold-dust, by panning out the sweepings from the floor. 
Dust was the only circulating medium ; and, as the party 
would get hilarious over the dance and beer, the gold-dust 
would be scattered rather promiscuously in making pay- 

36 



414 DELUSIVE REPORT OF PEACE. 

ments. Gambling, prostitution, dancing, and drinking 
were sometimes combined in one establishment ; and, when 
it is considered that the miners had then no other places of 
resort for amusement, it is not surprising that few of them 
saved any of their earnings. But the days of the hurdy- 
gurdy are gone, and gone forever, in this region. Only here 
and there sickly, spiritless caricatures of it remain ; and they 
will soon fade away before the progress of civilization. 

The people of the West learn from the Eastern papers 
that the Indian war is over, — that it has been happily con- 
cluded by treaties made by General Sherman. Strange 
indeed is it that intelligent people in the States believe 
such silly statements, and approve of the fatal folly of the 
commanders, in the face of the fact that the same farce 
has been repeated every year since the whites have peopled 
the Plains. Every year we have had a war, and every 
year a treaty. Several effectual treaties have been made 
in the last ten years, but the government makes no more 
of the kind. General Conner forged one out by his artil- 
lery at Bear River, and made the Bannocks peaceable, be- 
cause the few who survived were too feeble to fight. Gen- 
eral Harney did the same thing at Elk Horn ; and Colonel 
Chivington repeated it, only a little more so, at Sand 
Creek. No Indians who have had war from earnest and 
competent commanders have been willing to renew hostili- 
ties ; but all the hostile tribes know that the present com- 
manders take much more care of the savages than they do 
of the whites, and they rob and murder without fear of 
consequences. All they desire is that regular troops oc- 
cupy the West, and war is the most profitable enterprise 
they can embark in. 

During the last three years we have had war, on a large 
or small scale, every summer, and regularly paid the In- 
dians in the fall for their atrocities. The government paid 



FOLLY OF INDIAN TREATIES IN THE FALL. 415 

over two millions for the Colorado war, and then paid the 
Indians half a million or so for their losses, — thus carry- 
ing on the war on both sides. In 1865 the savages raided 
the Platte from Denver almost to the Missouri, and, in the 
spring of 1866, General Sherman passed by the charred 
walls of the murdered settlers' cabins, and their rude 
graves, and reported that the Indians were not hostile, and 
had not been so, excepting when provoked to it by the 
whites. He declared that there were no tribes at war ; 
and he proceeded to make a treaty giving the Indians arms 
and ammunition, with which they immediately went to 
war again. Next they butchered his Phil. Kearney garri- 
son, and have murdered hundreds of settlers and emigrants 
last summer, often in sight of his troops, and stolen or de- 
stroyed millions of property ; but he still insists that there 
is no war, and has just closed the campaign by another 
treaty, and given them clothing, provisions, arms, ammuni- 
tion, etc. to keep them during the winter and start them on 
the war-path again in the spring. He was cheated in his 
first effort at diplomacy with the savages, and has persisted 
in his error, even when every day brought its mangled 
dead to teach him his fatal mistake. When he was treating 
with the chiefs of the Sioux at Laramie, a band of their war- 
riors attempted to raid the Gallatin Valley, but were re- 
pulsed by Colonel Howie's volunteers; and the Indians 
had no other motive in making a treaty than to have cloth- 
ing, provisions, arms, and ammunition for the winter and 
to start them in the spring. They prefer war in the sum- 
mer, when they can swarm over the plains and through 
the mountains to gratify their taste for plunder and ven- 
geance. They do not fear any number of regular troops, 
for they can easily evade them when they wish to do so, 
and they are always ready to cut off small bodies in detail. 
Besides, every war they make in the summer results in 



416 THE WEST MUST HAVE PEACE. 

ample supplies in the fall, when they retire from their profit- 
able campaigns to winter in comfortable indolence. In the 
winter they cannot wage war. Their ponies are poor and 
have no feed, and they cannot depend upon suppl3nng them- 
selves on the march. Any vigorous, competent commander 
would hunt them in their villages now, and conquer them ; 
but Sherman forbids it. They are therefore ready to make 
a sham peace every fall, as they have done for years; and 
the wrong has just been repeated, as if the government 
had no other duties in the West. The Indians are all hos- 
tile when they dare be so. They would be more than 
untutored mortals if they were otherwise. They see the 
pale-faces covering the plains and valleys, dispersing their 
game, and they foresee the destiny that awaits them, — the 
choice between civilization or death. They are all bar- 
barians in instinct and taste. They will not work, and they 
love to rob, torture, and kill. They have no appreciation 
of faith, and make treaties just as they spy an enemy's 
camp. They are debauched, degraded, and merciless, and 
they regard civilization as their deadly foe. He who treats 
with them, therefore, after a summer of hostilities, is either 
a fool or a knave; and he who knows and defends them is 
worse than both. Ten thousand troops have been west of 
the Missouri the last season. What has been done ? The 
Indians took special care to murder and plunder in the very 
presence of the troops. What retribution has been visited 
upon them ? what lines have been protected ? what lives 
preserved? Millions of money have been expended: what 
account can be rendered for it? These are bitter words, — 
more painful to me than they can be to any others ; but 
they are the words of truth and soberness. I entreat the 
government to recall the troops from the West. With one 
voice the suffering people of the plains and mountains de- 
sire it. They have submitted to military authority, and 



HOW IT IS TO BE ATTAINED. 4 It 

sought to make it effective ; but they have advised and 
appealed in vain. Let the millions wasted last season be 
saved, hereafter, by the withdrawal of the regular troops, 
and let competent and honest officers be sent to organize 
mountain-troops when hostilities are commenced again. 
Colorado will gladly protect Colorado, with one man for 
every ten Sherman has there ; Montana will protect Mon- 
tana in like manner; and there will be no war, if the In- 
dians must brave the pioneers. There will be peace ; for 
then there must be peace or death. Soon railroads will 
traverse the now crimsoned plains, and settlers and miners 
will force out the slumbering wealth hitherto sacrificed to 
savagery, and safety and prosperity will bless the noble 
people of the Great West.* 

* General Sheridan has made some equally effective treaties re- 
cently, by decisive battles, and there is now some prospect of peace 
for the West. 



36* 



LETTER XLY. 

Holiday in the Kocky Mountains. — A Genial Christmas-Day. — 
Sumptuous Dinners and a Jolly Dance. — The Ball. — New- Year's 
Day.— A Field-Day of Frolic.— The First Call.— The Egg-nog 
analyzed.— Hospitality of the Capital. — The Babies. — A Prize- 
Fight in the House of Eepresentatives. — "Teddy" and "Chick" 
have a "Mill." — Con. Orem seconds Teddy, and wins, after a 
Protracted Contest. — A Kow in the Eing. — " Teddy" the Hero 
of the Theatre and the "Pony." — The Evening Supper. — The 
Professor's Speech. 

Virginia City, Montana Terr., January 4, 1868. 
Holidays in the Rocky Mountains are the most festive 
of all our festive occasions. Dull care is thrown far in the 
background, and business is subordinated to social and 
general enjoyment. Christmas was one of the balmiest 
days I ever witnessed in any climate. I sat most of the 
day in an office with the windows and doors open ; and 
fire would have been uncomfortable. The air was as soft 
as Eastern spring, and the sun shone out upon the hills and 
cliffs with such warmth as to start their winter crowns of 
snow in murmuring streamlets down their rugged sides. 
The city was gay throughout. The mines had poured 
forth their sturd}^ men to have a holiday frolic, and " The 
Pony" (the chief saloon) had crowded tables from early 
morn until the ''wee sma' hours" told that another Christ- 
mas had departed. The street-auctions were unusually 
lively ; the stores were swarming with customers of all 
(418) 



THE BALL. 419 

classes, from the unshorn and unshaven mountaineer to 
the fashionable belle ; the " sports" had their lively games, 
and billiards attracted nearly all the dignitaries of state to 
try their skill. Sumptuous dinners were spread in various 
uninviting-looking shanties, and fair hands and fascinating 
faces inside made guests forget the rude architecture that 
encircled them. In the evening mine host, Chapin, of the 
Planters', gave a ball, and one hundred jolly people re- 
sponded. Tickets were twenty dollars each ; but the sup- 
ply was unequal to the demand. A second floor over one of 
the large store-rooms was fitted up most tastefully for the 
occasion. Evergreens and flowers were festooned around 
the walls, and the Stars and Stripes hung in graceful folds 
over the orchestra. For the first time in the Far West I 
found nearly as many ladies as gentlemen at the ball ; but 
they varied rather more in their ages than is usual in 
Eastern gatherings of the kind. Young misses often and 
twelve years not unfrequently aided to fill up the dance, 
and, as a rule, did their part very well ; while my partner 
in the only active participation I had in the ball (the 
promenade to supper) was a grandmother who owned to 
nearly sixty winters. She was, like all Western ladies, 
fond of social parties, and looked with just pride upon 
her children and grandchildren as they "tripped the light 
fantastic toe" to the best of music. Supper came with mid- 
night; and it would have done credit to any Eastern town 
of thrice our population. Oyster soup opened the course, 
— the oysters having been shipped three thousand miles. 
Elegant salads, delicious jellies, game of all kinds, candies 
manufactured here into temples and monuments, almost 
every variety of fruits, and sparkling wines, combined to 
tempt the appetite ; and a jollier party I never saw sit down 
to a repast. While there was a freedom from the severe 



420 • NEW-YEAR'S DAY. 

exactions of social rules in the East, there was the most 
scrupulous care on the part of all to restrain social freedom 
within the bounds of propriety. After an hour at the 
table, the middle-aged portion of the party returned to the 
ball-room, while the old folks and little ones retired to 
their homes. Altogether, it was one of the most agreeable 
gatherings I have ever witnessed ; and it was enjoyed by 
most of the company as only Western people can enjoy 
social parties. With all the freedom of Western life, I 
have never seen a man intoxicated at a ball or other social 
meeting ; and the sincere cordiality evinced by the ladies 
to each other would be an improvement on the more culti- 
vated customs of the East. 

Between Christmas and New- Year the city was unusu- 
ally lively. The streets were gay with beauty and fashion, 
and in the evening merry music and the dance were always 
to be found under some of the many hospitable roofs of the 
town. Colonel Beidler was here, having a good time 
visiting old friends ; and Colonel Howie was also among 
the guests, enjoying the festivities of the capital. We spent 
many pleasant hours, during leisure afternoons, hearing 
Colonels Sanders, Beidler, Howie, Hall, and others fight 
over again the desperate battles they had had to give order 
and safety the victory over organized crime. 

Finally New- Year's morning dawned upon the little 
mountain-capital ; and it was by general consent laid out 
for a field-day of frolic. A party, embracing the heads of 
Church and State, — Bishop, Executive, Chief Justice, 
Secretary, Marshal, Professor, and some others of us who 
classed as high-privates, — started out to inaugurate New- 
Year calls. We naturally enough first paid our respects 
to the family of one of the distinguished officials, and found 
that our call was not unexpected. A huge bowl of foam- 



THE BAB FES. 421 

ing eg-g-nog was set out on the centre-table ; and we were 
made welcome, and accepted accordingly. We spent half 
an hour or so with the fair hostess, when the professor de- 
cided, from the confusion of tongues, that an analysis of the 
beverage was a necessity ; and, after a careful and scientific 
investigation, he reported that the egg-nog consisted of 
three gallons of whisky, one Q^g, and a little cream. I can 
vouch for the bishop retiring in as good order as he came ; 
but of the others, including the writer, it is not necessary 
to speak. There was some inexplicable confusion in fitting 
our hats as we started ; but it may be explained by the very 
thin air of the mountains flying to our heads. We did not 
get over half the city until the walking became very hard 
for our party, owing to the condition of the streets, and 
other causes ; and it was found impossible to conclude the 
calls on foot. A few inches of snow had fallen the day 
before, and Colonel Beidler, always ready for an emergency, 
called out a four-horse team and sled, in which we com- 
pleted the New- Year calls. It was not so difficult to get 
from house to house, but it was very tedious and tiresome 
getting in and out of the sleigh so often, — so much so, in- 
deed, that several of the party turned up missing on final 
roll-call. We had many a song and many a speech, and 
the jingling of glasses told of the gushing hospitality that 
welcomed the party at every house. The chief justice 
gave a story and a song, and was gravely lectured because 
there was no baby in the house. Neither host, nor host- 
ess, nor distinguished guest, received the lavish compli- 
. ments of the season that were given to the future states- 
men and mothers of the mountains now boasting of swad- 
dling clothes. One not yet a week old received the hom- 
age of the distinguished party, as the nurse guarded the 
cradle with mingled devotion and pride. Several were 



422 A PRIZE-FIGHT. 

christened in the round, — not by the bishop in an official 
way, but in most instances with Biblical names. 

At last the team was brought up before the hall used 
by the House of Representatives. Colonel Beidler was 
sitting with the driver, and, with a merry twinkle of the 
eye, he said, "Fun ahead, boys: let's have a hand at it;" 
and he called our attention to a rude ^placard on the door, 
stating that a sparring-match would come off at about 
that time. ''All hands come in," said the colonel; and he 
looked especially for the bishop. ''Just a little fun in the 
manly art," he added; but the bishop pleaded an engage- 
ment, and, with a kind farewell and a pleasant bow, he left 
us. The legislature had adjourned, and the hall of the 
House had been converted into a regular ring : the floor 
was covered with several inches of sawdust, a circle of rude 
board seats had been thrown around the ring, and what 
I supposed to be a sparring-match was to be exhibited 
at the moderate price of one dollar a head. "It's to be a 
square fight, and there will be fun," said Beidler ; but still 
I did not comprehend the entertainment to which we were 
invited. After the Orem and Dwyer fight, the legislature 
had passed a law forbidding public exhibitions of the 
manly art, unless the contestants wore gloves, — intending, 
of course, that the heavily-padded boxing-gloves should be 
used. Upon entering the hall, there was every indication 
of serious business on hand. A ring, some fifteen feet in 
diameter, was formed, and in it were four men. In one cor- 
ner was Con. Orem, stripped to his under-shirt, with an 
assortment of bottles, sponges, etc.; and by his side was 
sitting a little, smooth-faced fellow, wrapped in a blanket, 
looking like anything else than a hero of the prize-ring. 
He answered to the euphonious title of " Teddy," although 
English-born, and weighed one hundred and twenty-four 



''TEDDY'' AND ''CHICKS 423 

pounds. In the opposite corner was a sluggish-looking 
Hibernian, probably ten pounds heavier than ''Teddy," 
but evidently lacking the action of his opponent. With 
him was also his second. He was placarded as " The 
Michigan Chick;" and they had met to have a square set- 
to, according to the rulea of the ring, for one hundred dol- 
lars a side. Both had thin, close-fitting buckskin gloves 
on ; and they were to fight in that way, to bring themselves 
within the letter of the law. Packed in the hall were over 
one hundred of the " roughs" of the mines ; and I confess 
that I did not feel comfortable as I surveyed the desperate 
countenances and the glistening revolvers with which I 
was surrounded. Regarding discretion as the better part 
of valor, I suggested to Colonel Beidler that we had better 
retire ; but he would not entertain the proposition at all. 
'' Stay close by me, and there's no danger," was his reply. 
I had seen almost every phase of mountain-life but a fight; 
and I concluded that I would see it out and take the 
chances of getting away alive. My old friend Con. Orem, 
who was to fight '' Teddy," gave me a comfortable seat 
close by his corner, and reminded me that I was about to 
witness a most artistic exhibition of the manly art. " Is 
it to be a serious fight?" I asked. " You het!'''' was Con.'s 
significant reply. A distinguished military gentleman was 
chosen umpire, and in a few minutes he called ''time." 
Instantly " Teddy" and " Chick" flung off their blankets 
and stood up in fighting-trim, — naked to the waist, and 
clad only in woolen drawers and light shoes. " Teddy" 
stripped as delicately as a woman. His skin was soft and 
fair, and his waist was exceedingly slender ; but he had a 
full chest, and when he threw out his arms on guard he 
displayed a degree of muscle that indicated no easy vic- 
tory for his opponent. " Chick" was leaner, but had su- 



424 A ROW I]^ THE RING. 

perfluous flesh, and was evidently quite young, as was 
manifest when he put himself in position for action. He 
betrayed evident timidity, and was heavy in his move- 
ments ; but he seemed to have the physical power to crush 
his foe with one stroke, if he could only get it fairly home 
upon him. They advanced to the centre when time was 
called, and shook hands with a grim smile that was mu- 
tual, and the fight commenced. Both fought shy for a 
considerable time, and " Teddy" soon gave evidence of 
superior tact and training generally. " If he only has the 
endurance to protract the fight, he will lam the ' Chick' 
certain, you 6e^," said Orem, while he was bathing his 
principal after the first harmless round. And he was right. 
Fifty rounds were fought, and fully an hour had been em- 
ployed in mauling each other's mugs, when both showed 
evident symptoms of grief, and would have been glad to 
call it a draw ; but considerable money was staked, and 
their reputation as professional pugilists was involved, 
and they had to go through until one or the other was 
vanquished. Soon after, the " Chick" got in a fearful blow 
on '' Teddy," and, as he reeled to his corner, the crowd 
evidently believed the fight to be ended. The odds had 
been bet on '' Teddy," and a rush was made into the ring 
to break up the fight in a general row, so that the bets 
might be "declared off;'' ^^i^ instantly fifty pistols clicked 
and were drawn, most of which seemed to be pointed di- 
rectly at me. I could not get out, and could not dodge : 
so I had to nerve myself to face the consequences. Colonel 
Beidler at once sprang into the ring, drew his revolvers, 
and declared that he would kill the first man who at- 
tempted to interfere Avith the fight. All well understood 
that when Beidler's pistol was draAvn it meant business ; 
and the ring was almost instantly cleared, leaving him 



THE EVENING SUPPER. 425 

standing alone in the centre. " Boys," said he, '' this must 
be a fair fight. Go on with the show !" and time was 
promptly called again. It was perhaps fortunate for 
'' Teddy" that the interruption occurred ; for it gave him 
considerable time to recover from the serious blow he had 
received, and he came up to the scratch smiling again, but 
fought thereafter with the greatest care, striking out only 
when he considered the blow certain to tell. I noticed that 
he struck the " Chick" seventeen times on the right eye in 
seven rounds, and closed it, — when he commenced pound- 
ing the left optic. " Chick" generally closed because of his 
superior strength, and took " Teddy" in chancery fre- 
quently, but often with more cost to his own ribs than 
to '' Teddy's" mug. Finally, after a fight of one hour and 
forty-two minutes, embracing sixty-seven rounds, " Teddy" 
got in a terrible blow over " Chick's" heart, and sent him 
spinning to his corner like a top. The sponge was at once 
thrown up, and " Teddy" was victor. I went to " Chick's" 
corner, and found him in a most distressed condition. His 
face was battered almost into a jelly, one eye was entirely 
closed, and the other nearly shut. The gloves had prevented 
the skin from being cut, and he was forced to seek relief 
at once by the free use of the lance to get the blood from 
his face. His nostrils were closed with clotted blood, 
and his mouth Avas full of dark, thick blood. "I am too 
young," he said. " I should have known better. But I will 
whip him yet," was his remark, as he was led away by 
his friends. The orowd at once dispersed peaceably, and 
that night " Teddy" was the lion of the theatre, and par- 
ticipated in numerous drinks in honor of himself, at the 
" Pony," between acts. 

An elegant reunion supper at the '' Planters' " was the 
next entertainment ; and both wit and wine sparkled freely 
while we partook of the grateful mountain-repast. His 

37 



426 THE PROFESSOR'S SPEECH. 

Excellency, Governor Green Clay Smith, presided, and 
each in turn spoke as his humor prompted him. No ex- 
cuses were accepted, and each had to take his part in the 
oratory of the evening. The Professor's speech was rather 
of the pantomimic order ; but, as all knew what he meant 
to say, he was appreciated and generously applauded. 
Several brilliant open-door parties closed the festivities of 
New-Year's Day, and none could complain that there had 
not been a general recognition of the Christmas holidays 
in the mountains. 



LETTER XLY . 

Homeward bound. — The Mountain Cold Snap. — Preparations to 
brave Winter on the Kocky Kange. — A Jolly Stage-Coach 
Party.— Eattlesnake Cliffs.— The Foot of the Kocky Pvange.— 
Crossing the Kange. — Many Drivers and Stable-Men frost-bit- 
ten. — Arrival at Pleasant Yalley. — The Temperature Porty 
Degrees below Zero. — The Landlady of the Station. — A Presh 
Morning Kide. — Several Upsets in the Snow. — Snake Kiver 
Yalley. — A more Moderate Temperature. — Malade. — The Jo- 
sephite Mormons. — Arrival at Bear Kiver. 

Bear Kiver, Utah Terr., January 10, 1868. 
Homeward-bound at last! The evening of the 5th I 
spent with old mountain-friends, around the hospitable 
board of Colonel Sanders ; and the hours hurried by with 
unwelcome speed, as we discussed the past and the future 
of the brave mountain-people. I saved an hour for a 
quiet chat with Captain Mills, at his plain but ever-in- 
viting table of exchanges ; and politics and mines were for- 
gotten as we wandered back to the familiar scenes and 
friends of Pennsylvania. He is doing a great work in 
the struggle of Western civilization, and his genius spar- 
kles in the columns of the " Post" with a brilliancy that 
would do credit to journalism in any section of the coun- 
try. 'Midnight stole upon us unconsciously, and, with 
mutual good wishes for long life and happiness, I hurried 
off to rest a few hours before starting on a winter stage- 
ride of one thousand miles over the Rocky Mountains. At 
four in the morning I was called ; and, after a hasty break- 

(427) 



428 HOMEWARD BOUND. 

fast, the tedious work of preparing for a struggle with the 
terrible storm-king of the mountains was to be done. The 
bright weather of Christmas had departed, and one of the 
" cold snaps" was upon us. The mercury was down to 
twenty-six degrees below zero in Virginia City; and we 
accepted it as an admonition that the Rocky range would 
welcome us with old Winter's severest frost. Besides, 
the mountain-roads might become impassable, and the 
possibility of detention in snow-drifts, with the tempera- 
ture from twenty to forty degrees below zero, made pas- 
sengers thoughtful to protect themselves as completely as 
possible. With double woolen underclothing, a heavy 
winter suit, a blanket overcoat, a pair of heavy California 
blankets fully half an inch thick and large enough to en- 
velop the whole body, an immense buffalo robe, double 
woolen socks, buckskin moccasins, and buffalo boots, all 
carefully wrapped in gunny-sack, for the feet, I felt that 
the worst of winter storms might be defied. The ears, 
face, and hands were well protected by furs ; and, when 
nine of us were crowded into a mountain-coach, we de- 
cided that Winter must play some most fantastic tricks to 
conquer us. 

Just as the first dim rays of the god of day were gild- 
ing the hoary mountain-tops, the driver took his seat, 
cracked his whip, and we whirled out of Virginia to 
climb the innumerable cliffs and ranges which stood be- 
tween us and home. A light coat of snow covered the 
valleys, and the frost-bound roads answered in sharp, 
screeching song as the coach-wheels crushed the ice be- 
neath us. Down through Nevada and Junction Cities we 
hurried along, until the open valley of the Stinking Water 
enabled us to turn south toward the frowning battlements 
of mountains which lay across our path. The sun had 
reached nearly midway on his westward course ; but his 



A JOLLY STAGE-COACH PARTY. 429 

ravs were too feeble to moderate the keen, sullen chill that 
enveloped us. There was not a cloud in the sky, but the 
atmosphere was thick with frost, and throughout the day 
the sun was unfelt. The horses were whitened with the 
frozen perspiration, and their nostrils were covered with 
ice, their warm breath congealing before it escaped. The 
mustaches and whiskers of the driver and passengers 
were all frozen into uniform whiteness. But we had 
started out to face Winter in his angriest mood, and were 
fully prepared for it. One hapless miner who joined us at 
Helena Junction, and who was but poorly clad for such a 
journey, was crowded in the middle, where our large blan- 
kets and robes could envelop him in their ample folds. 
A jollier party I never traveled with ; and, as it had been 
made up to be congenial, we resolved that, let the storm 
rage as it might, we would have a good time as long as 
possible, and never borrow trouble. The amiable Profes- 
sor flanked me on the left, to equalize my size by his want 
of excessive avoirdupois, and his quiet jokes, along with 
the rollicking Irish lad of Western telegraphs and song, 
were like the mellow, still wine after the sparkling cham- 
pagne. A little of the best brandy the mountains could 
furnish was snugly stowed away in almost every overcoat; 
and, as we captured the station-fires while the horses were 
exchanged, bottles of bitters were passed around, and gen- 
erally accepted in moderation. 

About one o'clock we landed at the first "home-station," 
at Beaver-Head Rock, and an old-fashioned Eastern open 
fire greeted us and made us forgetful of the frost, while the 
landlady prepared us an excellent dinner. During the after- 
noon we crossed a portion of the Beaver-Head Valley, and 
found herds of fine cattle grazing, apparently indifferent to 
the severe snap of winter that was upon them. The whole 
day's journey presented nothing of special interest that the 

3t* 



430 RATTLESNAKE CLIFFS. 

letters have not already described, and night brought us 
to the celebrated Rattlesnake Cliffs, on the Beaver-Head 
River, where we were to rest until morning. The night 
was perfectly clear, and the thick frosted atmosphere of the 
valleys had been dissipated as we reached the foot-hills of 
the Rocky range. Although the mercury stood at thirty 
degrees below zero, I took a stroll, in the matchless star- 
light of the mountains, to look at the towering walls of 
seamless granite which almost hung over the little cabin 
in which we were quartered. The Beaver-Head ran too 
fresh and rapid for the ice to conquer it, and it dashed by 
in murmuring melody to chill in the embrace of Winter in 
the valley below. In every direction nothing was visible 
but the rude cliffs and frost-bound waste of the mountain- 
spurs ; and the stillness was inexpressibly painful, — not 
even a withered leaf to answer the soft stir of the mount- 
ain-breeze; my own footsteps seemed to break harshly 
upon the melancholy solitude that reigned around me. 
Away to the northwest the silver brightness of a snow- 
capped peak told that the moon was climbing the eastern 
slopes to fling a halo of mellowest beauty over the domes 
of peerless white, and, as she progressed in her steady 
course, to scatter alternate lights and shadows over the con- 
fused ranges and winding ravines of the Rocky Mountains. 
A good supper and a comfortable fire made us all cheer- 
ful, and the king of song made the little station-house 
melodious and hastened the flight of the long winter 
evening. By ten o'clock we were all comfortably in our 
rude but welcome bed, consisting of robes and blankets 
spread on the floor as close to the stove as we could ven- 
ture to sleep with safety. Before daylight we were called 
to prepare for breakfast, and, after doing ample justice to 
the morning meal and rehabilitating ourselves in our pon- 
derous suits, we started to climb the Rocky range. Our 



CROSSING THE ROCKY RAJsfGE. 431 

progress .was not rapid, as the hard hills and the snow com- 
pelled us to make haste slowly. There was too much snow 
in many places for the coach, and not enough in other 
places for runners. We had, therefore, to climb the range 
patiently. The road wound round the hills in the most 
tortuous manner, and on either side of us the rocky cliffs 
towered thousands of feet above us. At noon we reached 
Old Barrack Junction, and found a single-roomed cabin, 
doing duty alternately as a carpenter-shop, kitchen, dining- 
room, and bed-chamber. A tolerable dinner was prepared, 
and enjoyed by the company ; but the badly-frozen hands 
of the driver who should have taken us on, was not a 
pleasant reminder of the cold snaps of the mountains. 
His fingers were swollen to thrice their natural propor- 
tions, and, just before we started, he was coolly debating 
with the landlord whether the fingers must be amputated. 
Our locomotion was sensibly improved at that point, by 
our getting a sleigh in exchange for the unwieldy coach; 
but we had to increase our care to guard against freezing 
our faces, ears, and hands, as we were entirely exposed 
to the keen, stinging winds of the mountain-summit. 
We drew our robes over our heads, leaving but a little 
opening through which to see out ; and, with that precau- 
tion, and carefully avoiding to face the wind, we got along 
with comparative comfort and entire safety. The drivers 
seemed to be indifferent to the fearful cold to which they 
were exposed ; but they were well protected. They wear a 
full suit of buckskin underclothing over a like suit of 
woolen. It preserves the heat of the body, and is the 
best protection against the searching winds which play 
with pitiless fury on the mountains. They can readily 
protect the face and ears by furs, and the feet by socks, 
moccasins, bufi'alo-boots, and gunny-sacks ; but their hands 
are greatly exposed, as they cannot encumber their fingers 



432 SNOW-DRIFTS. 

with clumsy gloves. They always hold and manage all 
the lines with one hand, and must have the free use of 
their fingers. They wear silk gloves next the skin, and 
unlined buckskin over them, which constitute the best pro_ 
tection they can provide ; but it is often inadequate. In 
four days' drive I did not find a single home-station where 
there was not some driver or stable-man who had been 
more or less frozen during the last week. One man, who 
had to follow some straying horses, had both his feet so 
badly frozen that he hardly ho^^ed to save them from ampu- 
tation. 

The afternoon drive was on the summit of the Rocky 
range, and our road was over a succession of abrupt cliffs 
and deep snow-drifts. The snow is as dry as sand, and does 
not beat down like snow in the East. It is so light that 
the least breeze drifts it, and it sweeps along in low clouds 
and drops into every ravine or depression it crosses. The 
road is marked by long willow branches, stuck in the snow 
Avhere drifts occur ; and both horses and driver understand 
that the beaten track must be closely kept. Daily travel 
packs it like stiff sand, and the road can be traveled safely ; 
but if horses or sleigh get off the track they plunge into 
the unresisting snow, and it is often difficult to extricate 
them. Twice we had to unhitch the whole team, to get 
the horses out of the loose snow into the beaten road again. 
At times we went dashing over snow-drifts as high as the 
telegraph-poles, and the trained horses seemed to be intent 
only on guarding against missing the track. If one of 
them finds a foot sinking, he will jerk it up suddenly and 
shy off toward his mate, and generally save himself. So 
rapidly and continuously does the snow drift, that the road 
becomes trackless in a few minutes after a team has passed, 
and, but for the willows to mark the way, travel would be 
impossible. Only well-trained horses can be driven at all 



ARRIVAL AT PLEASANT VALLEY. 433 

over the drifted portions of the mountains. Evening 
brought us to the most forlorn station on the whole mount- 
ain-route ; and, as if to teach the sublimest contradiction, 
it is called "Pleasant Yalley." I found it better kept, how- 
ever, than in June last, and, but for the cloudless but howl- 
ing storm that raged about it, I might have thought kindly 
of it. It is on the top of the Rocky range, in what is 
known as Pleasant Yalley Pass ; and near it the head- 
waters of the Snake and Missouri Rivers divide. The sta- 
tion is a rude little cabin, in a deep ravine, between two 
steep cliffs, and the snow was banked up in little mount- 
ains around it. Here we reached the lowest temperature 
I have ever experienced. From nine p.m. until after day- 
light, it was forty degrees below zero, as indicated by spirit 
thermometers ; and I need not say that we cultivated the 
fire with tireless devotion. An excellent supper was served, 
and several of us made the acquaintance of the obliging 
landlady while we visited the kitchen to bathe our feet in 
fresh water to fortify them against the ordeal of the next 
day's drive. She was once in comfortable circumstances 
in Alexandria, Virginia; but rebellion took husband, home, 
and all she owned and loved. With some friends she 
made her way to the mountains, to begin life anew, and 
she is now earning one hundred and twenty-five dollars 
per month keeping the station. Although a stranger to 
labor until war left her bereft of property and blighted in 
her affections, she resolved to be dependent only upon her- 
self; and she now welcomes the traveler with cheerful 
smiles to her humble but hospitable home. 

After supper we brought the trained lightning into requi- 
sition, through the kindness of the operator, and chatted 
with friends in Virginia, Helena, Salt Lake, etc., and 
found how the weather-king was likely to receive us on 
our next day's journey. From all the same answer came, 



434 UPSETS IN THE SNOW. 

— " The coldest night of the season." The Professor dis- 
coursed upon the philosophy of maintaining animal 
warmth under difficulties, and everj precaution was care- 
fully studied and prepared for. A song closed the evening 
festivities, and, throwing off all care until the morrow, we 
disposed ourselves around the stove for a comfortable 
sleep. We had breakfast at four, and all took an extra 
cup of strong, hot coffee to enable us to brave the piercing 
frost without. At five we started in an open sleigh on 
our journey. ^N^ot a face was visible in the crowd. The 
driver had a fur mask over his face, and the passengers 
looked like so many blocks covered with robes. We crowded 
down in the bottom of the sleigh, and took the robes of the 
middle men to cover the heads of the entire party. Thus 
fortified, winter's fiercest blasts swept over us harmlessly, 
and we soon began to flatter ourselves that we could be 
indifferent to the temperature of the mountains. But, just 
as day was breaking in the east, the sleigh got off the 
beaten road, and we were tumbled pell-mell into snow up 
to our waists. Some went down head-foremost, and but 
for their robes would scarcely have left their boots above 
the snow. I was thrown from the farther side, and was 
almost entirely buried before I realized that anything had 
happened. Fortunately, the dry snow shakes off like dust ; 
and we soon had the sleigh righted up and ourselves re- 
packed in the bottom of it. But it was a terrible ordeal ; 
for our hands were almost frozen, even in our fur gloves, 
before we got restored to our places. Three upsets before 
ten o'clock relieved the monotony of this memorable morn- 
ing ride, and we all suffered intensely by the few minutes' 
exposure to the wind and snow necessitated by our unwill- 
ing somersaults. We did not even venture out to warm our- 
selves at the stations while the horses were changed, and 
the driver took the wise precaution to avoid fire during the 



THE JOSEPHITE MORMONS. 435 

whole fifty miles of his drive. The experienced and pru- 
dent mountaineer always avoids whisky and fire until his 
day's exposure is ended. Noon brought us out into Snake 
River YalJey, and we had a tolerable dinner at " Hole in 
the Sand" station. We had got down from the summit, 
and the temperature had moderated some fifteen degrees, — 
making the weather what we regarded as decidedly pleas- 
ant. We took the coach again at this station, and found 
no difficulty in keeping comfortable in the close apartment, 
packed in as we were with blankets and robes. We could 
again venture to look out without getting our noses frost- 
bitten ; and, as our faces no longer needed to be covered, 
conversation and cheerfulness again took possession of our 
little circle. Evening brought us to Eagle Rock Lodge, 
already described in these letters ; and we had a fine supper, 
a pleasant evening, and a comfortable sleep. In the morn- 
ing we continued our way through Snake River Valley to 
Ross's Fork, near old Fort Hall, where we had a good 
dinner. Fresh pork, venison, potatoes, and cabbage, with 
delicious bread and coffee, tempted us to eat the worth of 
the one dollar and fift}^ cents demanded, and we pushed on 
through Pont Neuf Caiion, Robbers' Roost, and other in- 
viting localities, memorable for mountain robberies and 
murders, until we landed in Marsh Valley, at '' Ruddy's," 
about eleven o'clock. Late as it was, we had a bountiful 
warm supper, after which we went to bed in our robes, and 
rose at two in the morning for breakfast, in order to make 
the long drive to this place in good time. The roads were 
bad, and we had to move slowly. The weather had con- 
tinued to moderate ; and when we reached the Josephite 
Mormon (anti-polygamy) settlement at Malade, for dinner, 
we could air ourselves on the streets without blankets. We 
spent an hour with the Hickory Mormons, and then pushed 
off for Bear River. The mosquitoes which swarmed about 



436 ARRIVAL AT BEAR RIVER. 

us in June had succumbed to winter, and we found a large 
two-story hotel at the place, instead of the little bank cabin 
that welcomed us to myriads of gnats and other winged 
blood-letters on our outward journey We were joined 
here by the passengers from Idaho, and fresh acquaint- 
ances added to the zest of an evening chat. One by one 
they have dropped off from song and story to bed, until I 
remain alone; and, with this hasty sketch of our five days' 
journey over the Rocky range, I resign myself, with ray 
companions, to rest. 



LETTER XLYII. 

An Earl}'- Start from Bear Eiver.— The Great Salt Lake.— Char- 
acter of its Tributaries and its Waters. — Dinner at Ogden. — 
Arrival at Salt Lake City. — The Townsend House. — The Land- 
lord and his Three Wives. — Kindness and Hospitality of the 
Mormons. — Mormon Drinking-Houses, Billiard -Kooms, and 
Currency. — The Law against Polygamy practically a Dead 
Letter. — Solution of the Vexed Problem. 

Salt Lake City, Utah Terr., January 12, 1868. 
We had pleasant beds and a good night's sleep at the 
new Bear River Hotel, and a tempting breakfast before 
daylight. It is a long drive from there to this city; and, 
with just snow enough to make staging rough and hard, 
and not enough to run the coach on sleds, we had a heavy 
day's drive to reach here on schedule time, — six in the 
evening. Before it was light enough to recognize each 
other in the coach, we were snugly crowded in, and started 
at a gay gallop to ascend the very abrupt hill which forms 
the southern bank of the river. Once on its summit, we 
had an open and almost level valley ahead of us, and we 
swept along at the rate of eight miles an hour, regardless 
of the icy roughness of the road. Soon we were again in 
view^of the Great Salt Lake, with its broad unruffled sur- 
face, and without a particle of ice on its waters. It is 
changeless in all seasons. Its banks never overflow, no 
matter how rapidly its mountain-tributaries rise ; nor does 
its volume of water diminish in the severest drought. 

38 ( 437 ) 



438 ARRIVAL AT OGDEN CITY. 

Whither its vast but unknown outlet courses in its hidden 
path to the sea, no one pretends to know; but that it 
must have a large subterranean passage to the Pacific is 
not a matter of doubt. Four large rivers empty into it, — 
the Bear, the Weber, the Ogden, and the Jordan, their 
combined waters being greater than the waters of the 
Susquehanna at Harrisburg; and, although all are the 
freshest of streams, the water of the lake is the most briny 
known in any large body in the world. Three gallons of 
water will evaporate into one gallon of pure salt. Of 
course no toilers of the sea inhabit it. Cattle cross some 
of its arms to reach the nutritious pastures on the lake- 
islands, where fresh water also abounds, and boats bear 
ambitious tourists from island to island to inspect the 
wonders of this singular inland sea; but no commerce 
floats upon it. It extends nearly eighty miles north and 
south, and about thirty miles east and west, with occa- 
sional flat meadows and towering mountains scattered 
through it. Now that it will soon be accessible in a few 
days from the Eastern cities, and scientific men can make 
a pleasant summer tour to this beautiful valley, before 
many years elapse the invisible currents of this large body 
of water will be positively traced, and the point of outlet 
ascertained. 

We arrived at Ogden City for dinner, and enjoyed the 
hospitality of one of Bishop West's eight wives. The 
weather was still cold, — the thermometer ranging below 
zero ; but we were all well protected, had level roads, and 
had rather an agreeable journey through the Mormon set- 
tlements to the chief city of the Saints. We arrived here 
last evening punctually on time, and took quarters at the 
Townsend House. It is owned and kept by Bishop Town- 
send, and is all that the traveler could wish for as a place 
of entertainment. The rooms are large, well ventilated, 



MORMON KINDNESS AND HOSPTTALTTY. 439 

and cleverly furnished, and the table is bountifully and credi- 
tably supplied. The bishop is the lord and master of three 
wives, and is an enthusiastic disciple of the polygamic faith. 
His first wife is not visible to the guests of the house; and 
how much the advent of the plural sisters has to do with 
her retirement, I can only guess. The second wife is the 
landlady, — a clever, agreeable Danish woman, and evi- 
dently a thorough housekeeper. She was one of the very 
few Mormon wives I found ready to chat with visitors ; 
but the one unpleasant domestic subject was never intro- 
duced. The third wife is a young madam still in her 
teens, and monopolizes the tender attentions of her lord. 
She lives in a separate establishment ; and the playing of 
the piano by the second wife all last night in the parlor 
immediately under my chamber was explained by the 
clerk as the result of the absence of the bishop, who was 
enjoying the latest-found charms of his increased house- 
hold. 

I had studied the Mormons socially when here in June 
last; and in these letters will be found the convictions then 
accepted. They have not been in any degree changed. 
Notwithstanding the freedom with which I discussed the 
objectionable features of Mormon life, I have been wel- 
comed again with unaffected kindness and hospitality ; 
and the same dignitaries of the Church have renewed the 
old discussion with me in the most friendly way. I spent 
last evening seeing the evening retreats of the Saints. 
Two drinking-saloons are allowed in this city of twenty 
thousand people, and they pay a license to the city of 
three hundred dollars per month. One of the saloons has 
a billiard-room attached; and, in addition to the license for 
selling liquors, a special license of $33.33^ a month is paid 
to the city on each of the nine tables. Here the Gentiles 
and strangers gather in, and it is a reunion every evening 



440 THE LAWS AGAINST rOLYGAMY. 

for some old friends who have long been parted in their 
mountain-adventures. Here and there through the crowd 
could be seen a Jack-Mormon (the term applied to ad- 
hering Saints who care more for Mormon trade than 
Mormon religion) ; but I did not see a single prominent 
Mormon during the two hours I spent there. Brigham 
Young recognizes the necessity for drinking-houses and 
billiards ; but he well understands that responsibility for 
abuse in the sale of liquor can be counted on only by limit- 
ing the houses to the smallest possible number. To do 
this, he makes the license thirty-six hundred dollars per 
annum; and but two houses can afford to pay it. He 
thus gets the maximum of revenue from the minimum of 
sources. Another large source of revenue is in Mormon 
currency. Notwithstanding the acts of Congress taxing 
all but national currency practically out of existence, the 
corporation of Salt Lake City (or, in fact, Brigham Young) 
has a considerable volume of currency out, that clo.-ely re- 
sembles our greenbacks. It passes in all branches of trade 
as acceptably as regular national bank-paper, and I pre- 
sume must, in some way, escape national taxation. 

I have so fully discussed the social features of polygamy 
heretofore that I will not again refer to them ; but the so- 
lution of this vexed problem has caused me much reflection 
since my visit here last summer. We have passed laws 
prohibiting polygamy, pronouncing it a crime, and defining 
its punishment ; but the laws have been as dead letters on 
our national statute-books, with not even the pretense of 
respecting them by this peculiar people. Indeed, in all my 
conversations with the leading Mormons, they declare with 
one accord that the laws against polygamy cannot and 
shall not be enforced. It is vain for a faithful Governor to 
appeal to the legislature ; for it is entirely Mormon. It is 
idle for law-abiding judges to charge Mormon grand juries 



MORMON POPULATION OF UTAH. 44 1 

that they are criminals, and ask them to find true bills 
against themselves; and, even if a conviction could be at- 
tained, sentence could not be enforced. Until I mingled 
with the Mormon people and ascertained their infatuated 
devotion to their Church, I felt that our government was 
remiss in not enforcing the laws against polygamy at any 
cost ; but since I have been here I have been staggered at the 
contemplation of the probable results of such a policy. The 
leaders are shrewd, cunning men, and do not mean to sur- 
render their power over a deluded people. As a class, they 
would, I have no doubt, surrender their cities and fields to 
devastation, and start for new homes in some inaccessible 
wilderness, rather than submit to force. Of the one hun- 
dred thousand population of Utah, ninety-two thousand are 
Mormons ; and of that number nine-tenths have implicit 
faith in the Mormon religion. It is a faith, too, that reason 
cannot unsettle ; and persecution, or what they would re- 
gard as persecution, would but intensify it. They have 
well considered the subject ; and it is their high resolve 
that the}^ may be driven from their favorite valley and 
their property sacrificed, but that they will not submit 
to any encroachment upon what they claim to be their 
right to worship according to the dictates of their con- 
sciences. 

But for the fact that the surges of Christian progress are 
already breaking against this hitherto impregnable rock of 
blasphemy and fanaticism, I should hesitate to offer any solu- 
tion of the vexed question. But the Pacific Railroad will 
cross this country in less than two years more, and each day 
is naw practically shortening the distance and lessening the 
dangers of a tour across the continent. When the people 
of the East get to understand that here are opportunities for 
industry and enterprise such as the old settlements cannot 

38* 



442 SOLUTION OF THE VEXED QUESTION. 

present, and when five clays' travel will land emigrants in 
Utah, I look for a heavy influx of settlers who will antago- 
nize the Mormon faith ; and the discovery of rich mines in 
the surrounding mountains will precipitate a population 
before which the Mormons cannot stand. Whether vice 
or virtue come to mingle with this people, the antago- 
nism is the same. Virtue will reform, vice will attack, 
and both will gradually but surely dethrone polygamy. 

The time is not yet for effective legislation on the sub- 
ject ; but it cannot be far distant. When the railroad is com- 
pleted, and the tide of fresh population sets in for Utah, 
then Congress may render essential aid in wiping out this 
fearful blot upon our fame. No half-way measures will be 
availing when the effort is to be made. Laws must not 
only be enacted, but they must be enforced. It cannot be 
done in a day, and perhaps not in a year ; but it can be 
done. There must be fifty thousand anti-Mormon people 
in Utah before laws against polygamy can be effective. 
There must be social, political, and business power to aid 
the law in asserting and maintaining its majesty. Then, 
if defiance continues, as hitherto and now, Congress can 
lay a heavy hand upon the polygamists and attain substan- 
tial results thereby. If all else fails, the denial of the right 
to vote, to hold office, to acquire title under the pre-emption 
and homestead laws, and to sit as jurors, may become a 
necessity, and accomplish what milder measures have 
failed to secure. There will be a desperate struggle for 
polygamy ; but I am hopeful that the rapid infusion of a 
new element into Mormon society will gradually prepare 
them for the change, and submission will ultimately follow. 
The time has come when this problem must be solved. It 
is now about to be brought face to face with civilization ; 
and our laws should conform to the new order of things 
and aid enlightened progress in this reform. In no other 



THE SUCCESSFUL RE3IEDT. 443 

way can it be effected, unless by a prodigious war and 
pursuing the criminals with flame and sword ; and that 
cannot be sanctioned. To be successful, the remedy must 
be a peaceful one ; and I shall anxiously await the day when 
the westward march of liberal Christianity, going hand in 
hand with law, shall remove this stain from our national 
escutcheon. 



LETTER XLYIIL 

Leaving Salt Lake. — Crossing the Rocky Range again. — The 
Winter Trip more pleasant than the Summer Trip. — Weher 
Canon and Weber River. — Echo Canon. — A Night Upset. — 
No Damage done. — A Snow-Storm. — The Road lost. — Above 
the Clouds on the Range. — Starlight above, and a Snow-Storm 
below. — The Professor's Speech. — Bear River. — Crossing Quak- 
ing Asp Divide. — Bridger Valley. — Fort Bridger. — Hank Con- 
ner. — A Gay Night-Drive through the Mountain-Cliffs. — A Wild 
Team, and our Experience with it. — Green River. — Bitter Creek, 
— A Baby Passenger. — The Whistle of the Locomotive again. — 
End of a Journey of Three Thousand Miles through the Rocky 
Mountains. 

Cheyenne, Dakota Terr., January 18, 18G8. 
On the morning of the 1 2th we bade a second farewell to 
the City of the Saints, and started for a winter journey of 
over five hundred miles across the Rocky Mountains 
again. The journey from Montana to the East by Utah 
involves crossing the Rocky Mountains twice from base to 
base ; and the tourist starting from Deer Lodge, Montana, 
for the East must cross the Rocky range three times. 
The mountains bend far to the west as they cross the 
northern part of the United States, leaving Virginia City, 
Helena, and most of the settled portion of Montana east 
of the Rocky range, although far west of the eastern 
side of the mountains at Denver. The Rocky range di- 
vides Montana, leaving Deer Lodge and Missoula coun- 
ties west of it. Starting at Virginia City, therefore, we 
are on the eastern side of the Rocky range, and get on 
(444) 



A PLEASANT WINTER JOURNEY. 445 

the western side as we journey south into Idaho and Utah. 
At Salt Lake City we must cross the mountains again to 
get to this point. Thus in a journey of three thousand 
miles by stage through the mountains I have crossed them 
six times from base to base, and at four different passes, — 
viz. : Bridger, Pleasant Yalley, Big Hole, and Mullen's. 
Bridger and Pleasant Yalley Passes were crossed twice 
each in the journey. 

Although I had crossed the mountains from here to Salt 
Lake in June last, I found but little sign of summer ; and, 
upon the wiiole, the winter trip was decidedly the most 
pleasant. The most pitiless snow-storm I was ever ex- 
posed to was on the summit of the range on the tth 
of June ; and the ravages of the Indians all around us 
did not add to the comfort of the journey. But the win- 
ter trip was comparatively pleasant. We all looked for 
cold weather and but moderate accommodations; and we 
did not realize more than we expected in the disagreeable 
line. Indeed, in some respects it was a very pleasant part 
of the mountain -journey. We had a jolly company, were 
not uncomfortably crowded, and the line and stations 
were in comparatively good condition. We had no vexa- 
tious delays, only two or three innocent upsets, and the 
"home-stations" generally welcomed us to acceptable 
meals. 

Instead of crossing the Wasatch range by Parley 
Canon, as we did when going west, we were taken through 
Weber Canon, where the Weber River has cut its way 
through the towering mountain that impeded its outlet to 
the Utah basin. The fall of the river is very rapid in 
most places. The bed of the stream is narrow, and the 
water foams and dashes along, often undermining huge 
rocks and hurling them down with the irresistible tide. 
We dined on tolerable fare at the mouth of the canon, and 



446 ^ NIGHT UPSET. 

started in a comfortable sleigh to follow the sinuosities of 
our narrow road along the river-bank. At times perpen- 
dicular walls of rock, nearly a thousand feet high, were on 
one side of us, and the boisterous river close by us on the 
other side ; and in several instances the frowning rocks 
reached out over us, — the water having washed away a 
portion of the foundation where the narrow stage-road is 
now located. In some twenty miles nothing is presented 
to the traveler but the bleakest of mountain-cliffs, abrupt 
ravines, and the ceaseless roaring of the angry waters of 
the Weber as they dash onward to the plain. 

It was after dark when we arrived at Weber, fifty miles 
from Salt Lake, and the most eastern settlement of the 
Mormons. We had an hour to enjoy a good supper and a 
bright open fire, when we started for a night-drive through 
the celebrated Echo Canon, already described in these 
letters. We all got comfortably wrapped up in our blan- 
kets and robes for sleep. Conversation had entirely died 
out, and all were enjoying or coaxing slumber. Suddenly 
we all landed, in most ungraceful attitudes, in a snow-bank 
on the hill-side, and passengers, robes, blankets, trunks, 
bottles, etc. were mixed up in the greatest confusion. The 
sleigh had upset when making a rapid turn in the road, 
and we were pitched more than a rod before we fell. For- 
tunately, no serious damage was sustained by any one, and 
we gathered ourselves and our baggage up as best we 
could, shook the dry snow off, and nestled down again for 
rest. Before midnight a heavy snow-storm set in, and the 
road soon became invisible to the driver. He stopped 
several times to reconnoitre ; and I could hear his expres- 
sions, rather more emphatic than elegant, evidently indi- 
cating that he had lost his way. After wandering around 
for two hours, he finally reached the next station, and 
there we met the western-bound coach laid up for the 



ABOVE THE CLOUDS ON THE RANGE. 447 

night, — the driver having also lost his way, and decided 
to wait for daylight. There was no comfortable room for 
the passengers, and, after lounging about for an hour or 
more, our party insisted upon going on ; and the driver at 
last consented to do so. 

Before daylight we reached the summit just west of 
Bear River, and there we suddenly emerged from the 
snow-storm into bright starlight, with a cloudless sky 
above us, while the storm-king was hurling the tempest on 
every side of us below. We stopped the sleigh, and all 
got out to enjoy the scene above the clouds, and called 
upon Professor Eaton for an explanatory speech. He re- 
sponded in his happiest style, and a miniature town-meet- 
ing was thus improvised on the mountain-top to hear and 
applaud the theory of storms and clouds. 

Just as the first appearance of day was visible in the 
east, we landed at Bear River, and remained for break- 
fast. After a good warming and a clever meal, we 
started again, to climb the Quaking Asp Divide, the 
highest range of the Rocky Mountains crossed by the 
stage-route between this place and Salt Lake. The 
morning was intensely cold, and the fine, dry snow 
was flying in clouds, which blinded the driver and pas- 
sengers. Where the snow-drifts were deep, in the nu- 
merous ravines or depressions, the road was marked by 
willow sprigs, and the horses kept the beaten track. Little 
driving was required, and the long slope of changeless 
white, without even a bush to break the monotony of the 
view, seemed almost endless, as we slowly climbed it. 
What appeared to be but a steep incline of a few miles 
proved to be a weary journey of ten miles, and we most 
gladly welcomed the sight of the rude station that stood 
out on the hill-side to brave the merciless storms which 
play almost perpetually around it. The warm stove was 



448 THE CELEBRATED HANK CONNER. 

a welcome acquaintance, and we clustered around it to 
thaw ourselves out. 

After crossing the Quaking Asp Divide, we had a delight- 
ful drive over Bridger Plain, and the middle of the after- 
noon brought us to the little mountain-city known as Fort 
Bridger. My old friend, Judge Carter, was absent; but a 
fine station-house, with several apartments, and all with 
cheerful fires sparkling on the hearth, made us most com- 
fortable, and furnished an excellent dinner. 

At this place we came under the whip of the celebrated 
Hank Conner, — the gayest, the joUiest, the most reckless, 
and yet one of the most expert drivers on the entire route. 
Hank is a splendid specimen of Western manhood. Tall, 
well proportioned, active as a cat, his face beaming with 
intelligence and humor, he is a perfect monarch when he 
is seated on the box, with his hat perched saucily on the 
side of his head, his lines perfectly in hand, and his long 
lash tapered with the keen, silken cracker. While he 
chatted with us before the fire, he was busy finishing a new 
whip, and, from the sly expression of his face rather than 
from an^^hing he said, it was manifest that he meant to 
give us a ride to be remembered. He had given me notice, 
when I went west, that he hoped to have a chance to give 
me a display of his skill ; and now the opportunity had 
come. Jolly John Creighton was one of the party ; and 
Hank had an old score to settle with him also. It was 
evident that a merry ride was before us, and we resolved 
to take things as they came, and to die rather than 
"squeal," — to use a Westernism. 

About four o'clock we started for a sixty-mile drive to 
Green River. The road, for thirty miles, was over a level 
plain. The sleighing was elegant, and we traveled along 
at the rate of twelve miles an hour. Soon after dark we 
got into a succession of blufi's; but still we went along 



OUR EXPERIENCE WITH A WILD TEA3L 449 

pleasantlj^, until we came to the last station west of Green 
River. So far, Hank had been jolly and talkative, but he 
had not been able to " sweat" us, as he had threatened. 
We began to hope that we would escape ; but at the last 
station a confusion of bluffs were dimly visible in the moon- 
light, and I feared that Hank's time had come. I walked 
carelessly around the team as the men were hitching up, 
and professed to amuse myself petting the sociable stable- 
dog ; but I was carefully surveying the restive bronchos 
(wild horses) led out for Hank's last drive. 

" Lively team, Hank," I remarked, with well-aflfected 
indifference. 

''They're lightning," was Hank's laconic but expressive 
answer. 

'' How is the road to the rivor ?" I ventured to ask, next. 

'' It's hell," was his significant response. 

Creighton and I held a hasty council of war, and decided 
that one of us should take the front and the other the rear 
seat in the sleigh on opposite sides, so that we could lean 
out and probably save an upset. The six bronchos pranced 
around until Hank took his seat, when, with the yell, " Git !" 
his long lash swung out over the team, and the crack of his 
silk resounded through the mountain-cliffs. The horses 
sprang off and dashed down the steep hill with frightful 
speed. The off-wheeler soon became dissatisfied with the 
race, and commenced violent kicking, to which Hank re- 
sponded by the free use of the whip ; but the broncho 
kicked away until he had about dissolved himself of har- 
ness, when Hank pulled up the team, and, with a growling 
curse at the vicious horse, he got out to hitch him up again. 
It required two of the passengers to hold the team while 
the obstreperous wheeler was being reharnessed ; but soon 
the job was completed, and Hank whirled and cracked his 
whip more viciously than ever. A long, rough hill was 

39 



450 ARRIVAL AT GREEN RIVER. 

before us, with snow-drifts and sharp curves around the 
cliffs ; but through and around all he dashed as if some 
mountain-fiend was chasing him. Several times he well- 
nigh had the sleigh over, but Creighton and I would swing 
out and save it when just on the balance. Before we 
reached the foot of the hill, the lead-pole attaching the 
front horses to the team broke loose ; but Hank did not 
stop for such trifles. Away he Tlashed with part of the 
team detached from the other horses and held only by the 
lines, his whip cracking and flashing over the frightened 
bronchos, and now and then, as bare spots of road were 
reached, a streak of fire streamed behind us for rods, as if 
some demon of the wilderness was on our track. Not a 
word was spoken by the passengers : all were fixed in the 
determination that Hank might break a few necks or limbs, 
but that none should recognize anything unusual in his 
fancy midnight drive. At the foot of the hill he 'pulled up 
again, getting the horses in a bunch, and attempted to re- 
hitch the leaders. It required all the passengers to hold 
the team while Hank was reuniting them, and, that done, 
he cracked his whip again and started off with increased 
desperation. A single expostulation would doubtless have 
satisfied him and given us peace. We all wanted the mad 
drive to end, and I think that each hoped that one of the 
others would speak ; but no one proved equal to the surren- 
der of his pride to his fears. There was, therefore, nothing 
left but to meet it as bravely as possible ; and we made the 
twelve-mile drive over the worst of mountain-road without 
an intimation from one of the passengers that anything was 
wrong. 

At last the foaming and steaming horses galloped up 
before the station at Green River, and the silence on the 
subject of the drive was unbroken until we sat down to our 
one o'clock supper. Hank could keep silent no longer. We 



GIVING UP THE OLD STAGE-COACH. 451 

had beaten him at his own game; and he was deeply mor- 
tified. Finally he said, "■ Colonel, I was a little sJoiver on my 
last heat than usual. Hope you were not impatient at the 
delay." '' Certainly not," I answered. " Considering the 
bad roads and the lateness of the hour, you did reason- 
ably well." Not even a smile accompanied the remarks on 
either side ; and soon after we all bade Hank good-by with 
a hearty shake of the hand. 

I have so fully described the Bitter Creek region and 
Bridger Pass in letters last spring, that I will not refer to 
them again. No incidents worthy of note occurred on the 
route, until at Sulphur Spring we were joined by a lady 
with a rollicking baby. She certainly could not complain 
of our want of gallantry. We first offered the whole sleigh 
to the baby, and as much of it as the mother wanted for 
herself. Two passengers were detailed to take special care 
of the young mountaineer; and they were relieved from 
station to station. Never were mother and child made 
more welcome, and the best of our blankets and robes en- 
circled them. Who they were, or to whom they belonged, 
we never inquired. They were as an oasis in the desert ; 
and we left them at Dale City, with an individual bless- 
ing from each of us. 

Last night we emerged from the mountains ; and I felt 
some reluctance at the idea of giving up the old stage- 
coach. It had been my friend for many months, and my 
companion through all my long mountain-travels. I had 
learned to love it, to sleep comfortably in it, and to enjoy 
the hospitality it secured me. But the land of civilization 
had again been reached, as I fully realized when near the 
city. I heard again the almost-forgotten scream of the 
locomotive-whistle. For eight months 1 had not heard it; 
and when I had left the iron horse on my westward jour- 
ney it had but reached the Platte, three hundred miles 



452 END OF OUR JOURNEY. 

farther toward the rising sun. At three this morning we 
whirled into Cheyenne; and I woke up to see a city of five 
thousand people. On the 9th of June last, when I was at 
Virginia Dale, some thirty miles west of this place, the 
Indians had attacked the engineer corps about where Chey- 
enne stands. There was then not a habitation visible on 
this inhospitable plain. Now the locomotive sings his 
rude song daily, and five thousand of the fastest people of 
the continent dwell here for the time being. They have 
no law but the law of the people, and a lifeless body sus- 
pended to a post this morning occasioned no comment, un- 
less among strangers. The law of self-preservation is the 
supreme law, and there is a short shrift for the freebooter. 
To-morrow I start for home. It is now but a journey 
of three and a half days from the Rocky Mountains to 
Harrisburg. I have had eight months of the most delight- 
ful adventure in the mountains ; and my three thousand 
miles of journey through them will ever be among the most 
grateful recollections of my life. 



APPENDIX. 



THE OVERLAND STAGE LINE. 

Letter No. 18, commencing on page 275, is given as origin- 
ally published in the New York "Tribune," without omissions or 
modification. 

Wells, Fargo & Co. complained that it did their company great 
injustice, and formally notified the publishers of the " Tribune" that, 
unless my alleged misstatements were corrected, an action for libel 
would follow. No retraction or apology was given for the publica- 
tion, and no libel suit followed. I met one of the officers of the com- 
pany after my return, and the whole subject was fully and frankly 
discussed. The facts, as I gave them from personal observation, 
he did not question ; but he made some explanations which I deem 
it due to the company now to give with the letter. He informed 
me that the government had never paid for any horses taken by 
the Indians. On that point I was doubtless mistaken. He claimed, 
however, that, under their contract, Congress was bound to pay 
for all stock they have lost or may lose because of inadequate 
protection to the route. He fully disabused my mind respecting 
the alleged neglect of the company to provide for their stock. 
They came into possession of the line late in the fall of 1866, — too 
late to procure ample supplies of feed ; and the loss of their stock 
on the Plains compelled them to use every horse they could get, 
and they verj' naturally used the least valuable in the mountain- 
region, where the stock was most exposed, and where proper care 
could not be taken of them. I am convinced that I did the com- 
pany injustice in assuming that the capture of their crippled and 
worthless stock was deliberately planned. While I cannot hold 
the company as excusable, I am glad to relieve them from the 

(453) 



454 APPENDIX. 

grave imputation of inviting Indian raids by intentionally ex- 
posing their worn-down horses. I believed then, as did their own 
agents, and business-men generally on the line, that they were 
clearing from $500,000 to $1,000,000 annually, and felt that they 
could afford to make much better provision for their stock and 
greatly enhance the safety and comfort of passengers. The fact 
that the shares of the company have fallen sixty per cent, since the 
spring of 1867, and that (as I have been assured by an officer of 
the company) the line was run at a heavy loss in 1867-8, relieves 
them from the charge of illiberality. The obnoxious law, pro- 
hibiting the transmission of books, papers, and pamphlets by 
mail, has been repealed since my letter was written, and that 
serious ground of complaint is removed. Desiring to be just, I 
have thought it best to give the letter just as it was written, to- 
gether with this note of explanation. When I returned over 
the same route in the winter of 1868, I found the whole line well 
stocked and abundantly supplied. 



THE INDIAN QUESTION. 

The letter No. 38, commencing on page 354, was written after 
the most careful reflection upon the subject, and also after oppor- 
tunity had been afl'orded for very thorough observation of the 
actual condition of both settlers and the nomadic tribes in the 
Far West. As will be seen by reference to the first letters written 
west of the Missouri, I shared the humanitarian views of most 
Eastern people in looking to the solution of the Indian problem ; 
and it was with great reluctance that I accepted the convictions 
of the Western people as just. In this I was not singular. But 
few who have acquired personal knowledge of the actual condition 
of the two races on the plains and in the mountain-valleys have 
been able to maintain their opinions formed in the East. At the 
time these letters were written, the military were nearly as much 
at war with the settlers as were the Indians. Since then our com- 
manders have attained a better understanding of the two races ; 
and the result is the prospect of permanent peace. 



APPENDIX. 455 

In General Sherman's official report, made J!!Tovember 1, 1868, 
he recites some of the revolting atrocities of the savages, and 
adds, "I recite these facts with some precision, because they are 
proved beyond dispute ; and, up to the very moment of their de- 
parture from Pawnee Fork, no Indian alleges any but the kindest 
treatment on the part of the age7its of the general government^ of 
our soldiers, or of the frontier peoj^le, with one exception. Agent 
Leavenworth." 

Speaking of the regular army, he says, "The soldiers, not only 
from a natural aversion to an Indian war, which is all work and 
no glory, but under positive orders from me, had borne with all 
manner of insult and provocation, in hopes that very soon the 
measures of the Peace Commission would culminate in the with- 
drawal of these savages from the neighborhood of our posts, roads, 
and settlements, and thereby end all farther trouble." 

Again he says, "I am fully aware that many of our good peo- 
ple, far removed from contact with these Indians, and dwelling 
with a painful interest on past events, such as are described to 
have occurred in Minnesota in 1863 and at the Chivington mas- 
sacre in 1864, believe that the whites are always in the wrong, 
and that the Indians have been forced to resort to war in self- 
defense, by actual want or by reason of our selfishness. lamtnore 
than convinced that such is not the case in the ptresent instance; and 
I hope I have made it plain." 

The Indian war of 1868-9 is but a continuation of the war of 
1865-8, and its prosecution, in studied savagery, has never 
been abated since the terrible sweep of the Indians from the 
mountains down the Platte Valley nearly to the Missouri, in the 
winter of 1865. Had General Sherman's report of 1868 been 
made three years ago, and the campaigns of 1866-7 been conducted 
as Sheridan has conducted his campaign just closed, many thou- 
sands of frontier lives and millions of property would have been 
saved. It was true then, as General Sherman acknowledges now 
in his report, that "i^ is idle for us longer to attempt to occupy 
the Plains in common with these Indians. . . . Therefore a joint 
occupation of that district of country by these two classes of peo- 
ple (settlers and savages), with such opposing interests, is a, swzp^e 
impossibility, and the Indians must yield;'^ and there would have 
been peace long since, had not soldiers with "a natural aversion 
to an Indian war" been in the field, and a systematic effort been 



456 APPENDIX. 

made to do what is now a confessed impossibility — make the in- 
dustrious pioneer and the indolent, thieving, and treacherous sav- 
age live in peace together. General Sherman now solves the 
problem as I begged him to solve it in 1867 ; and Sheridan's re- 
cent victories would have been pronounced repetitions of Sand 
Creek, had not the government slowly and reluctantly learned 
that Sand Creek, Elk Horn, and Bear River (where decisive bat- 
tles were fought by Chivington, Harney, and Conner) are the 
only monuments of peace known in the history of the settlement 
of the mountain Territories. 1 have referred to General Sherman's 
report to show that in the treatment of the Indian question in 
these letters I hav^e been fully sustained by the civil and military 
authorities, and that my statements, which were deemed harsh at 
the time by many Eastern readers, were fully warranted, and have 
been fully vindicated. 



THE END. 



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